Pre-K · Mouth & body
My Mouth Helps Me
Chewing yummy food, singing songs, smiling at friends — little learners discover all the ways their mouth helps them, and why a clean mouth feels so good.
What you'll learn
- Students will name one thing their mouth helps them do — chew, talk, sing, or smile.
- Students will connect chewing food to growing strong and having energy to play.
- Students will repeat that taking care of teeth helps their whole body feel good.
Wiggle your lips. Click your teeth. Stick out your tongue — hello, mouth! Your mouth is one of your busiest helpers. Let’s count the ways!
All the jobs my mouth does
- Chewing! Chomp, chomp — teeth mash food into tiny bites so your body can use it to grow big and run fast. Chewing is how the fuel gets in!
- Talking and singing! Your lips, tongue, and teeth team up to make words and songs. La-la-la!
- Blowing! Bubbles, birthday candles, dandelion fluff — thank you, mouth!
- Smiling! Your smile tells your friends “let’s play!” before you say a word.
Helping my helper
Your mouth helps you all day long. When it’s clean and happy, eating feels good, talking is easy, and your smile shines. But a hurting tooth makes everything harder — eating, sleeping, even playing.
So we help our helper right back! Brush every morning and every night with your grown-up, drink water, and visit the friendly dentist. Taking care of your mouth is taking care of you — all of you!
Give your mouth a big thank-you smile, then try the little quiz below with your grown-up or teacher!
Print & go
Printables for this lesson
The educator plan includes objectives, standards, the step-by-step lesson, and a paper pre/post knowledge check with answer key. The family sheet is bilingual — English and Español on one page.
Standards alignment
Sources
Every health claim in this lesson comes from a primary source and is clinically reviewed before publication.
- Source: ADA MouthHealthy — Baby Teethaccessed 2026-07-28
- Source: ADA MouthHealthy — Diet and Dental Healthaccessed 2026-07-28
- Source: American Dental Association — Toothbrushes (Oral Health Topics)accessed 2026-07-28
Licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 — free for schools and families to use, share, and adapt with credit (non-commercial, share-alike).
Healthy Smiles. Brighter Futures. · atomicsmile.org/learn
My Mouth Helps Me — Educator Lesson Plan
Learning objectives
- Students will name one thing their mouth helps them do — chew, talk, sing, or smile.
- Students will connect chewing food to growing strong and having energy to play.
- Students will repeat that taking care of teeth helps their whole body feel good.
Standards alignment (NHES)
- NHES 1.2.1 — Identify that healthy behaviors impact personal health. (Standard 1, Pre-K–Grade 2, NHES 2nd ed., 2007)
- NHES 7.2.1 — Demonstrate healthy practices and behaviors to maintain or improve personal health. (Standard 7, Pre-K–Grade 2, NHES 2nd ed., 2007)
Materials
- Picture cards of mouth jobs — eating, singing, blowing bubbles, smiling, telling a story
- A song everyone knows, for the singing moment
- Printed pre/post knowledge checks from this packet (one per child, read aloud, used twice)
Procedure
- Pre-check (3 min): read each question aloud and let children point or answer together. Collect the sheets to compare after.
- Warm-up (2 min): press your lips together tight. Now try to say your name. Tricky! Mouths do SO many jobs.
- Mouth jobs (4 min): act out each picture card together — chomp a pretend apple, sing one line of the song, blow a pretend bubble, give the biggest smile.
- Grow talk (3 min): when teeth chew food into tiny bites, your body turns it into energy — for running, jumping, and growing big. Chewing is how the fuel gets in!
- Wrap-up (1 min): our mouth helps us all day long — so we help it back with brushing every morning and night.
- Post-check (2 min): read the same questions aloud again and celebrate how much everyone knows now.
Knowledge check — photocopy this page
Give the same check before and after the lesson; class totals before vs. after give you a measurable outcome for reports and grants.
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________ ☐ Before the lesson ☐ After the lesson
- What jobs does your mouth do?
- Chewing, talking, and smiling
- Tying shoes
- No jobs at all
- Why is chewing important?
- It makes funny noises
- It gets food fuel into your growing body
- It is not important
- What does your smile tell your friends?
- Go away
- Nothing
- Let's play!
- What makes eating and playing harder?
- A hurting tooth
- A clean, happy mouth
- Drinking water
- How do we help our mouth helper back?
- Never brush it
- Brush morning and night with a grown-up
- Feed it candy all day
Answer key — teacher page
1. a · 2. b · 3. c · 4. a · 5. b
Sources
- ADA MouthHealthy — Baby Teeth — https://www.mouthhealthy.org/all-topics-a-z/baby-teeth (accessed 2026-07-28)
- ADA MouthHealthy — Diet and Dental Health — https://www.mouthhealthy.org/nutrition/food-tips (accessed 2026-07-28)
- American Dental Association — Toothbrushes (Oral Health Topics) — https://www.ada.org/resources/ada-library/oral-health-topics/toothbrushes (accessed 2026-07-28)
Healthy Smiles. Brighter Futures. · atomicsmile.org/learn
My Mouth Helps Me
Tonight's healthy habit
Your child's mouth is busy all day — chewing food for growing bodies, shaping first words and songs, and sharing smiles. A clean, comfortable mouth helps them eat well and feel good, so twice-a-day brushing is caring for the whole child, not just the teeth.
Try it tonight
Before bed, play "mouth thank-you": each of you names one happy thing your mouth did today — tasted something yummy, sang a song, gave a smile — then thank it with a good two-minute brushing together.
El hábito saludable de hoy
La boca de su hijo o hija trabaja todo el día — mastica la comida para su cuerpo que crece, forma sus primeras palabras y canciones, y comparte sonrisas. Una boca limpia y sin molestias le ayuda a comer bien y sentirse bien, así que cepillarse dos veces al día es cuidar a todo el niño, no solo los dientes.
Pruébalo esta noche
Antes de dormir, jueguen a "gracias, boquita": cada quien dice una cosa bonita que su boca hizo hoy — probó algo rico, cantó una canción, regaló una sonrisa — y luego le dan las gracias con una buena cepillada de dos minutos juntos.
Bring this lesson to your classroom.
We'll help you print, prep, and teach it — or come teach it with you.