Recycling spoptlight: the importance of brushing teeth

Here is an activity that has been rather shamelessly adapted from a lot of blogs

The real objective: To have fun.
The desired objective: To learn about brushing

Here is Sophia squeezing some toothpaste into an old toothbrush

And here are her teeth

These are better views of the teeth and ofcourse Sophia kept saying "Open Aaaa do like a cyocodile"

It is also important to brush corners and between the teeth

How to: I cut up an egg carton and put liquid soap over it with a brush. This helps adhere paint on to the plastic surface (all the hydrophobic and hydrophilic stuff. i never do the laundry, but the science helps in the making of crafts)

On top of the liquid soap, I applied a coat of black paint. This is supposed to represent food particles and bacteria, so there is no need to make the paint uniform. infact, the more ugly it is, the better - makes an impression.

I gave the girls some old toothpaste and two of their own toothbrushes, and a bowl of water.

Learning opportunities: While they were brushing - it took a surprisingly long time to brush with the brushes, I pointed out how the surface of their teeth was not smooth but had a lot of grooves and craks like the egg cartons. Sometimies the dirt got stuck in the holes and you had to brush extra carefully. 

There was also some fine motor involved in squeezing the toothpaste onto the toothbrush. It was new for Sophia atleast, since I usually put the paste on for her. 

I guess (hope) that underneath it all a lesson on the importance of brushing went in, but even if it didnt, it was an interesting and fun opportunity to do the reverse of painting.