Teach Children to Floss Teeth with Play Dough!

I almost didn’t share this activity – it’s really too simple! But after sharing our scrubbing dinosaurs to learn how to brush our teeth activity, I know that a lot of families struggle with tooth flossing, so I thought I’d share a fun way to teach kids how to floss teeth!

Ella is pretty good about flossing her teeth – we use these cute little flossers for now, since they are small and easy for children to use semi-independently. However, we’re working on using just plain floss and have been discussing why flossing is so important!

This quick activity took only a minute to set up and Ella played with it for a good half hour while I made supper. It invited some great conversation about taking care of ourselves and why that’s important.

How to Teach Kids to Floss Teeth – with Play Dough!

Materials

• One large Duplo or Mega-Block single-rowed block
• Play Dough (homemade or store-bought)
• Dental floss

You can use any colour of play dough – a bright colour might even make this more fun – but I went with white as it was more relatable to the plaque that Ella sometimes observes on her flosser.

Simply show your child how to use the floss to remove the play dough, or if they are a bit older and like to creatively problem solve – leave them to it with no explanation!

Be available for discussion, but avoid the urge to interfere or comment too much. You know your child best – if you think a supportive comment will be encouraging, go for it! If there’s a chance your interjection might be distracting, best to leave them alone.

Having the children scoop the play dough out from in between the Duplo pegs is a great fine motor experience and it shows how important thorough flossing can be – especially if your child observes small pieces of play dough being left behind!

If you’re really brave, it would be awesome to do this activity with sticky tack – to show how flossing can be tricky and what happens if plaque is left on teeth overnight. I can’t really think of any materials that would be easy to remove the day of, and harder to remove the next day – can you?

Would you try this simple activity to teach your children how to floss their teeth? Do your kids like flossing their teeth?

Check out these other fun ways to learn with Lego’s from my fellow kids’ activities bloggers:

• LEGO Addition Mat for Greater Than/Less Than from Life Over C’s
• Duplo Lego Geoboard from Still Playing School
• Duplo Consonant Blends Activity from Learning 2 Walk
• Educational Playtime with Duplo – Sorting, Estimating and Building from Crafty Mama in ME
• LEGO DUPLO Sight Word Towers from Powerful Mothering
• Geometric Blueprints with LEGO from Handmade Kids Art
• Slippery Lego Duplo Fine Motor Practice from Best Toys 4 Toddlers
• Penguin Ice Cube Counting With LEGO from Preschool Powol Packets
• Word Building with LEGOS from Sugar Aunts
• Hands-on Science: Creating a Water Cycle Project using LEGO from Edventures with Kids
• Lego Tower Subtraction Race from The Kindergarten Connection
• Lego: 5 reasons you should use it with your kids from The Usual Mayhem
• Lego Heart Marble Maze from Lemon Lime Adventures
• Dumping Lego Colour Match Activity from Teach me Mommy
• Feed the Duplo Alien from Adventures of Adam
• How To Create A Duplo Block Painting from Raising Little Superheroes
• Letter Sequencing with Lego Duplo from School Time Snippets
• Lego ordering, days of the week from In The Playroom
• LEGO Math Ten Frame Games from Lalymom