Community Helpers- Dentist

Today I will be sharing some of the activities we did for our dentist unit. Like always we start any unit by reading books and this unit was no different.

We read  the following two books and the kids related well to both the books because of the famous characters.

 

We did the famous fizzy drink experiment to see what happens to our teeth if we drink too many of them.

I had boiled an egg and we let it soak overnight in the fizzy drink. We observed the color of the egg before soaking it in the fizzy drink.

  We tried cleaning the pretend tooth with toothpaste and a toothbrush only to find that the tooth had stains which wouldn't go away. Our conclusion, of course was to avoid fizzy drinks.

We also sorted other foods that are healthy and unhealthy for our teeth.

The kids  practiced cleaning teeth with a floss. We used an egg carton for the pretend teeth.

We also learnt the right way to brush our teeth. We used white paint and a toothbrush to brush a tooth template.

We brainstormed things we could do to keep our teeth healthy.

We read the emergent reader on the dentist and sorted his tools. Get these books from HERE.

It was a fun unit and definitely inspired the kids to take care of their teeth.

Community Helpers- Doctor

We started the unit on doctors by exploring nonfictional and fictional books.

         

The kids made a doctors craft and did some writing.

We also discussed the different kinds of doctors-surgeons, paramedics and pediatrics.

I integrated literacy into the unit and played a word surgery game. The idea came from Tunstalltimes.blogspot

We also made a doctors kit and an ambulance craft.

We recorded facts that we learnt about a doctor. You can download this sheet from 3dinosaurs.

We wrapped this week long unit by reading my doctor emergent reader book. Get your copy from my TPT STORE.

Children also explored the various tools that a doctor uses. I don't have a picture of them engaging in dramatic play but you can view how I had set up a dramatic play area previously by clicking HERE.

I will be sharing few activities about the community helper- dentist as well. So do come back to check them out.

Community Helpers

This topic is one of my favorites to teach because its so easy for children to connect the learning with their immediate environment. We are surrounded with people who help us, be it doctors, nurses, teachers or police officers. And in some point or the other, children have had contact with these professionals. So teaching this unit is fairly easy and the opportunities for pretend play are also immense with this topic. In short, I always feel successful as a teacher when teaching this unit ;)

 I love incorporating literacy into any thematic unit, so I created a set of emergent readers which kids enjoy reading. It has simple repetitive sentences and basic sight words which makes them easy to read. 

I also get my kids to create their own books to take home. They can record the information they have learnt about each community helper and read it to their parents.

A good way to recap all the big words is through vocabulary cards. Just cut the pictures and words apart and put them in a pocket chart. Children look at the pictures and match the correct word. I find this extremely helpful, especially for children who struggle with remembering big words. You can also print two copies and play a memory game with these cards

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Another interesting activity is to do picture sorts. I normally keep this activity for assessing children's knowledge. I give them pictures of tools used by community helpers and they have to sort and stick the correct pictures for each community helper.

If you would like to get these activities, visit my TPT STORE.

I will be sharing more ideas that I do with this unit, so stay tuned!