Teach Kids about Dental Health and Risks of Sneaking Treats with Cami Kangaroo

Cami Kangaroo Has Too Many Sweets

*We received this lovely book complimentary for our review and activity time.

 Cami Kangaroo loves sweets. She can’t stop thinking about them. Even after Mommy catches her locked in the playroom eating out of a bucket of ice cream, she still finds ways to sneak them. What could possibly go wrong? Based on true-life stories of the author’s own daughter, Cami, this book will have you and your children laughing as well as learning a valuable lesson. This is the first book in the series “Cami Kangaroo and Wyatt Too.”

Read more about the lovely author at her website: www.stacycbauer.com.

Review

This book is a really cute and sweet way to teach a lesson about dental health. Cami just can’t stop sneaking treats, and when she goes to her dentist appointment she learns why eating healthy and taking care of your teeth is so important.

My son enjoys this book and keeps asking me to read it to him. He’s 3 and has a sweet tooth of his own. He enjoys the beautiful illustrations and colorful pages. I’m hoping the lesson about sneaking treats and dental health is sinking in. At least he’s good about letting us brush his teeth since we made a song game out of it.

 

Related: You can read my post about taking care of children’s teeth, here.

Lesson Plan

The author Stacy Bauer also created a lovely lesson plan for teaching this book.  The lesson plan focuses on reading the book and discussing it, and also has a teeth brushing activity worksheet where the kids can think about how to correctly brush their teeth and put the worksheet steps and images in order. Teachers can request the lesson plan directly from her blog.

 

For preschool age kids there’s a fun song you can sign to remind kids that brushing is important:

Have children sing along with you to the tune: “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” with the words:
Brush, brush, brush your teeth, brush them twice a day
Keep them bright, make them shine, clean the plaque away
Brush brush brush your teeth, brush them twice a day
Front, back, take off the plaque, now we smile all day

Teeth Brushing Activity for Prescholers

You can also do a fun craft and activity with preschoolers to learn about teeth. You know I love paper plate crafts!

Take a paper plate and trace and cut a simple tooth shape out of it. You can cut as the parent or let the child practice their skills. It helps if the paper plate is shiny for this activity. Sprinkle some “dirt” such as cinnamon or another spice. Then let the kiddo use an old toothbrush to clean the tooth.