H is for Hygiene

And Halloween, of course! ;-)

We allowed the children to dress up in costumes when they came to co-op last Friday. Here is a dinosaur and Daphne (from Scooby Doo).


A character from Harry Potter (sorry I forget which one! I am not very familiar with H.P.) and a concierge.


Robinhood and Darth Vader.


A Ninja and an 80's rock star.


A bat.


A Barbie bride and Buzz Lightyear.


A pirate and the moon.


And last but not least, a washer and dryer (I thought that one was very creative!!).


Hygiene as our topic of the week was perfect for the day before halloween. We had a dental hygienist come and talk to us about oral hygiene. She demonstrated the correct way to brush on Darth Vader's fingertips. Imagine your finger is the gum of your mouth, the nail is the tooth, and your cuticle is where the gum and tooth meet. We should brush parallel to the way the tooth is growing ~ not across the teeth, but from the gum down (if it's an upper tooth) and from the gum up (if it's a bottom tooth).


She showed us the proper amount of toothpaste to use, which is a teeny tiny miniscule amount! Should save nicely on the toothpaste bill! Actually, she told us that cleaning our teeth with just water was best, saving toothpaste for "polishing" after the teeth were already clean.

She gave each willing child a fluoride treatment. (emphasis on "willing") :-)


And taught us the tooth song to sing or hum while brushing (to the tune of "Row, Row, Row your Boat").


Every child got a new toothbrush, toothpaste, and disposable floss picks.


Two of my children couldn't brush their teeth that night due to the fluoride, but the others brushed for a long, long, long, long time!! They took our speaker's words to heart and counted to 20 while brushing each individual tooth (I confess, if we have to be out the door in the morning, I let them brush the "old" way!).

Then Angela read us some books about halloween. I really appreciated one of her choices which was Is Halloween for Real? It talked about halloween from a christian perspective, how it started, what it's about, what's real and what's not. We munched on apples while she was reading, as we learned that apples are a kind of natural toothbrush.

It was a fun and exciting morning at co-op! For the month of November I will be the IEW writing teacher, and we will be doing unit 5 which is learning to write from pictures. I'm looking forward to it!