The American Dental Health Association held the first national observance of Children's Dental Health Day on February 8, 1949. This single day observance became a week-long event in 1955. In 1981, the program was extended to a month-long celebration known today as National Children's Dental Health Month. We will celebrate with a week-long event in hopes that we can instill habits that will continue to flourish over a lifetime. Here is what we have in store:

Concepts for the Children to Learn:
* Teeth are an important part of our body.
* Parts of the mouth.
* Keeping our teeth clean helps keep them happy. (Brush at least 2 times per day.)
* Basic brushing techniques.
* Visiting the dentist is an important part of keeping our teeth healthy.
* The dentist is a friendly doctor who helps care for our teeth.
* Eating nutritious food is important for our teeth.

Learning and Art Experiences:
* Sorting foods that make our teeth happy vs. foods that make our teeth sad.
* Labeling the parts of a mouth.
* Make a mouth using paper plates and marshmallows
* Creating a toothbrush out of various art materials.
* Toothbrush math.
* Happy tooth necklace.
* Dentist puppet.

Wednesday - Show and Tell: The students may bring in something related to their teeth OR dental health.

Science Experiments:
* Cavity Capers - We will use an apple to represent a tooth. We will poke a hole in it and explain that cavities are "holes" in our teeth. We will observe the apple over the course of the week and see what happens. Discussion will involve the comparison between what happens if we DON'T take care of our teeth to what has happened to the apple over the course of just a few days.
* Watch Out! Acid Attack - Using a hardboiled egg and some from vinegar, we will see how the shell of the egg dissipates over the course of the week. The results will be similar to the enamel on our teeth weakening when we don't take care of them!

Journal Focus: This week the children will be drawing and writing about ways to keep their teeth healthy and clean.

Word Wall Words:
* brush
* eat
* floss
* spit
* chew
* white
* clean
* two

Field Trip News: Circle B Bowling Party-We will be celebrating our 100th day of school on Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012. We will bowl from 10:00-11:00 (one game) and come back to school for a pizza party.

Valentine's Day Party: Kindergarten will be celebrating Valentine's Day on Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2012. Students may bring in cards for their friends, but please just have the child write his or her name on the cards so we know who they are from. They do NOT have to be addressed with who they are for. There are 16 students in KW and 18 in KC. Treats for the class are also nice but certainly not a necessity!

Artist of the Month - Georges Seurat:
Georges Seurat was a French painter and draftsman. Seurat used a very specific style of painting called Pointillism. Pointillism is a technique of painting in which small distinct dots of color create the impression of a wide selection of other colors and optical blending. The children will be using Q-Tips and Bingo dabbers to create their very own Pointillism masterpieces. The children will start by painting basic shapes, then moving to making their own paintings! Be sure to check out the Kindergarten Artist of the Month walls!

Homework Assignment:Papers for our 100 Days of School Homework will be due on the actual 100th day of school and the day of our bowling party -
Wednesday, Feb 15.

Brush Your Teeth (sung to "Row, Row, Row your Boat"):
Brush, brush, brush your teeth, at least two times a day.
Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, fighting tooth decay.
Floss, floss, floss your teeth, every single day.
Gently, gently, gently, gently, whisking Plaque away.
Rinse, rinse, rinse your teeth, every single day.
Swishing, swishing, swishing, swishing, fighting tooth decay.