How to make your own toothpaste. A very engaging activity to carry out with early childhood children at home or at school.

1. MAKING AND TESTING
TOOTHPASTE ACTIVITY.
Toothpaste is made of a combination of substances.
It usually contains a fine material, called an abrasive,
that grinds and pushes deposits of plaque and tartar
off your teeth. Some toothpastes also contain
fluoride, which helps prevent holes called cavities
from developing in your teeth. In addition,
toothpastes usually contain a little soap along with a
flavor and a color. This simple toothpaste recipe will
get the calcium carbonate (from the Tums) as an
abrasive and baking soda to remove stains and
reduce mouth acids

2. WHAT DO WE NEED?
We would need the following:
1.Package of unflavored Tums antacid tablets
2..Small box of baking soda Assorted liquid food
colors
3.Assorted liquid food flavors (for example, vanilla
and orange)
4.Plastic spoon
5.Measuring spoons
6.Two sandwich bags
7.Clean dish towel
8.Two clean, clear, plastic cups
9.Rolling pin
10.Access to water
11. Vanilla flavor, strawberry flavor

3. Step one
Put two or three in the sandwich bag, and
then seal it tightly.
 Break up the Tums by tapping on them
through the bag.
 When they're in pieces, put the towel over
 First we need to form a fine powder with the tums.
the bag and then move the rolling pin back
and forth over it, crushing the Tums into a
fine powder.
 Keep adding, breaking, and crushing Tums
like this until you've made about 1/2
teaspoon of powder.

4. Step two
 Next we mix the dry substances together.
 Put ½ teaspoon of tums into a plastic cup.
 Add ¼ teaspoon of baking soda.
 Mix in the cup with three drops of water to
make a paste.
 Add a ½ a teaspoon of the food flavoring
of your choice.

5. WHAT DID YOU OBSERVE
 Ask children questions to gather
information about their learning,
understanding and vocabulary.
 What did you observe?
 What does the mixture feel like?
 what color is the mixture?
 What does it taste like?
 Did you enjoy this activity.
 What did you learn?

6. EXTENDING THEIR LEARNING
. Ask the children to repeat the activity using
other measurements.
 Study the original recipe and your
observations to get ideas for improving the
toothpaste.
 Think about using different amounts of
substances, adding a flavor, and changing the
color.
Make a new batch of toothpaste, test it, and
write down your observations.

7. What we need:
 We would need to get a toothbrush for each student.
 Provide toothpaste.
 Provide water in each cup for students.
 Provide a video to show children how to brush their
teeth.

8. Field trip visit to the dental
clinic.by the 3rd graders.
Invite a dentist to the classroom to give children a
talk about caring for their teeth.
o Dentist will check the teeth of all the children in
the class.
o Dentist will talk about some simple tools used to
check the teeth.
o Dentist teach children how to brush their teeth and
inform them about how many time to brush their
teeth daily.

10. VIDEO ON HOW TO TAKE CARE
OF OUR TEETH.
http://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=hDZXSMU2lAk

11. Extending children’s learning.
To begin, you'll need to grind up
some Tums to
o Children get the opportunity to ask
the dentist questions.
o Children will further their
experiencing by visiting the dental
clinic to get their teeth checked.

12. Activities with family.
Provide a chart for children to take
home and document how often
they brush daily.
Parents will record if children were
able to follow the correct brushing
movements.
Records will be submitted to
school for further interpretations
using graphs