Brush Your Teeth!

Welcome to November everyone!  I hope that Bristol and Ryan enjoyed all of the Halloween festivities last week.  We sure had fun and learned a whole lot too!  This month our theme will be all about community helpers.  This week we are learning about people in the community that help me...specifically dentists and doctors.

This morning the touch and feel pool was full of toothbrushes and toothbrush covers.  It was really hard for the kiddos to just pretend to brush their teeth with the toothbrushes...so tempting to put them in their mouth!  But they did a great job and enjoyed putting the tops on and taking them off.
                            
We introduced "November" to Bristol and Ryan at Morning Circle today.  Our calendar had lots of pictures of pilgrims, Native Americans, and turkeys.  We practiced the "gobble gobble" of the turkey ALOT!

On the playground, it was still all about balls, but both Bristol and Ryan used the balls for new, super fun games today.  I had a great interaction going with Bristol as she sent the balls down the slide, and I threw them back up to her.  It was a great opportunity to work on the concepts of "up" and "down," and we also achieved long episodes of sustained eye contact and vocalizations.  Ryan's new game involved kicking the balls, but he wanted to see if I could kick the balls under his legs...over and over again.  He was also successful at getting some other kids on the playground to do the same.

Today a dental hygienist from Eastover Pediatric Dentistry came to talk to us about the importance of eating healthy and taking care of our teeth.  To get ready for her visit we read Going to the Dentist, which is an Usborne First Experiences book from Scholastic.  This book is a great introduction to all that a child experiences at the dentist...playing in the waiting room, sitting in a big special chair, seeing the dentist with gloves and a mask, and learning how to brush teeth properly. After we read the book, we painted our own yellow teeth with white paint on construction paper using tooth brushes to make our "teeth" clean!

After we came in from the playground, we joined the rest of the Speech Garden to meet Miss Debbie, the dental hygienist; and she was awesome!  We watched a short video called "The Adventures of Mr. Wiggly Tooth," and then she taught us how to brush and floss our teeth appropriately using her very special puppet friend with a big mouth and lots of teeth!  She taught us about the "sugar bugs" that live on our teeth after we eat and the importance of brushing at least two times a day with the help of our parents.  Miss Debbie sent us all home with a special treat bag on good dental hygiene.   

Bristol and Ryan each had a really great day.  See you all on Thursday to learn all about doctors!