Eat Healthy, Learn Plenty!!

Hello!

When introducing types of teeth, I ensure to have some eating activity in class. This not just activates young taste buds but also makes the whole session enjoyable.

My focus for the activity remains on:

• discussing new words or actions/verbs involved while using our teeth to eat (for example - biting, chewing, tearing, grinding, etc).
• the position at which the food was place first inside the mouth (front, side, back of the mouth).
• introducing the names of different types of teeth (incisors, canines, pre molars, molars).

The items needed for the activity are:

 

1. sliced carrots  
2. sliced cucumbers
3. coconut slices
4. cake slices
5. sour punk (in little amounts)

The quantity of each depends on the strength of your class. Now, the idea is to have all the 5 items cut/sliced on a plate ready before the class. So, you might have to prepare a little in advance. Everybody should be able to eat each food item and make a note of the action involved and the position or teeth used to eat that particular food item.

Prepare a worksheet or a recording sheet for the same. Something like this:

Food item	Position (front, side, back)	Action (bite, chew, grind, tear)
carrot
cucumber
cake
coconut
sour punk

  

Before beginning the activity, you could brainstorm a few vocabulary by asking them how they eat their food and what actions they do to make the food smaller in their mouth.

As they eat one at a time ask the students to observe which part of the teeth did they use to eat and what action did they do. It's important that they record in the sheet at that moment and then move on to eating the next item.   

The response sheet may look like this:

Food item	Position (front, side, back)	Action (bite, chew, grind, tear)
carrot	side	bite
cucumber	front	bite
cake	front	chew
coconut	back	grind
sour punk	side	tear

The answers may vary and all the answers are okay. The activity is more about the experiences of students and hence there are no wrong answers.

Once the activity is over, you could draw their attention to the different types of teeth. The front as incisors, sides as canines and the ones at the back as pre molars and molars. Gradually their functions and structure could also be discussed.

Overall, I really enjoy doing this activity in class as it makes it very simple for the kids to understand the different types of teeth and at the same time we get to eat in class before lunch time!! 😋