Ryan Cockerel and his classmates used part of an egg carton as their teeth to practice brushing, rinsing and flossing.

The Learn N' Grow Preschool students at Alamo Elementary learned several lessons about how to take care of their teeth recently. After reading "Brushing Well," "My Dentist," and "Our Tooth Story," the students decided to put some of their new knowledge to the test. 

They explored their own teeth, then use egg cartons to simulate their teeth to practice brushing, rinsing and flossing. But it didn't end there, "We took all the (play) food in our kitchen and made two piles," says Teacher Kelly May, "We talked about food with sugar and foods without sugar. We decided that sometimes we do like to eat treats, and cupcakes, but we definitely have to rinse our mouths with water if we are not near our toothbrushes," she adds. They also learned to brush their teeth as soon as they get home if they've eated sweets.

To take the lesson to another level, they conducted a science experiment using hard boiled eggs, again, to represent their preschool teeth, and put them in three different liquids. "We made predictions of what would happen if we didn't brush our teeth," May explains. One glass contained cola, another orange juice and the other vinegar to represent bad breath. "We were shocked withour results," May says.

"The cola was really brown; the orange juice was very bumpy and rough, and the vinegar dissolved the eggshell. So we learned if we have bad breath, we really need to brush our teeth."

Each student went home with a personalized brushing chart to brush and floss their teeth morning and night. "It was a great, fun, hands-on week!" May says.

The students also created mouths using construction paper and mini marshmallows as their teeth. Check out more photos on our Facebook Photo Album.