Dental Health Craft for Kids

February is Dental Health month.  It’s a great time to schedule a trip to the dentist or have a dentist come and talk to your class.  Here’s a fun dental health craft for kids that they’ll love do to this month: Have them create a portrait of themselves brushing their teeth.  Add puffy paint toothpaste to the toothbrush for the finishing touch!

Materials:

• construction paper in assorted colors
• crayons, markers, and/or colored pencils
• scissors
• liquid glue
• glue stick
• shaving cream
• small paintbrush
• templates

Directions:

1. Print templates onto construction paper.  Students cut out the templates. 
2. Glue the shirt at the bottom of the paper a bit to the left of center. This leaves room to add the arm later. 
3. Glue on the face and hair.  Students might like to draw on or decorate their shirt.  I like to wait until the head is glued on  so they see how much room they have to decorate.  
4. Next, glue on the eyes and mouth.  Draw on a nose. 
5. Place the sleeve vertically next to the shirt.  Add the hand under the top of the sleeve and then place the toothbrush under it.  Glue all the pieces into place. 
6. Mix equal parts liquid glue and shaving cream to make the puffy paint toothpaste. 
7. Using a small paintbrush, paint a small amount of puffy paint on the toothbrush to resemble toothpaste. A little goes a long way!

This art project is a great follow-up to learning the steps for how to brush your teeth or proper oral care.  Have students write a how-to piece on how to brush their teeth and add it to the bottom of the portrait for a cute bulletin board display!

This craft is a part of my larger week-long dental health unit for kindergarten and first grade.  The templates may be purchased separately from the unit here!