Dental Health Week

Monday's can be hard enough just by being a Monday, but after the weekend we had, it was especially hard. After 2 full days of 60 degree weather, we woke to a dark, rainy sky. How hard it was to pull myself out of bed. Then I remembered that this is the week we will be exploring Dental Health. It is always a fun theme to explore with the kids. There is so much mystery about going to the Dentist. Some may never have been there and others may have been, but just once or twice. Those Brave Kids are the experts and have much to say on the subject. Whether it is about the "Sunglasses" they got to wear, the yummy paste they got to use, and for the boys, the spitting into the "whirly" drain (as someone aptly named it).

So, today we began with the book ABC Dentist...Healthy Teeth from A to Z, by Harriet Ziefert. A book that was graciously given to us to borrow from Ms Tracy!! Thank You Ms Tracy!!! (She got this book from the Scholastic Book Club in paperback, the hardcover is much more expensive, so look for it in Scholastic!!) It is an ABC book that does a great job taking the children from A... Appointment to Z... Having teeth that are a Zillion times cleaner then when they began. It isn't a story book, but it gives facts that the kids can understand, for instance, it talks about P... Plaque "is an almost invisible white, sticky coating on teeth that is caused by eating sugar and sticky foods." This led into a discussion on why we have to brush, floss AND see a Dentist to make sure no "invisible white, sticky" stuff is on our teeth. It is a great book and we will go over it each day at Circle Time this week, but not so in depth as today. We will accompany it with more Story Book about going to the Dentist.

We then went off into Quiet Work time. At the Art Center I had a craft set up where they had to cut out a Yellow "tooth." Then we painted it with white paint mixed with corn syrup to make it shiny (like a healthy tooth). We have done this craft before, but I have always used white paper, but I found this idea on the Internet, and thought it would be interesting to talk about the "dirty" tooth getting clean by the Dentist (the kids). We had some great conversation and the stickiness of the paint caught some of the kids by surprise. (Only a few choose to help make it, so some didn't realize that it had corn syrup in it.) I found it kind of ironic that I was using the Corn Syrup to make the tooth "healthy" again... haha, oh well, that won't be a fact I point out :)

Working on our Healthy Teeth

Ms Syd spent a lot of time on her tooth. She was captivated by the paint and just kept putting more and more on. Her tooth will definitely have a nice enamel on it when it dries :)

Friends painting together... the conversation between these two was quite interesting. Syd would tell Little Miss M "You brush your teeth" and Little Miss M would try to brush her teeth with the paint brush. Then Syd would laugh and say, "No M!!" and Little Miss M would laugh a big belly laugh. It was very cute to see these two little talkers holding a conversation.

Opps... out of order, but this is Our Princess cutting her tooth out.

Little Miss M in one of her favorite activities... helping Shell clean the table. Any table, window, or bookshelf is not safe from Little Miss M when she has a cleaning rag in her hand. This is the age where Toddlers really want to help out around the house. That is where I love Montessori, I set her up with a work and teach her how to do it and she can do the work pretty independently after that. I have to supervise (usually by working along side her) but if I need to help another child, she is able to continue without making to huge of a mess. The Toddler Stage is so exciting, so much happens in such a short amount of time.

We have had the Easel out as a Center last week and again this week. Little Miss M loves it!!! If she walks by and sees a blank paper, she HAS got to put a mark on it. Sometimes it is just a quick stroke of red, other times it is full on painting. It is a "Free" center, where I leave the paints out all day for who ever would like to use it, so I have to always be alert to when Little Miss M has a full on painting urge so I can get her smock on. She still likes to paint herself :)

We had homemade Veggie Noodle Soup today, with Cucumber Salad, and Strawberries. It was hit or miss. Some loved the soup, others the cucumber salad. I loved that almost everything they ate was homemade and/or fresh. Those that choose to help me cook seemed to like certain things more. We will be trying some new recipes this week and if the kids really seem to like something I will post the recipe and hopefully some pictures. But I don't always get to click them when I am in the kitchen. Someone always needs help or my hands are dirty and then before I realize it we are done and no photos have been taken, but I will try!! Have a Great Monday!!!!!