Materials
Chart paper marker trail mix ingredients measuring cups mixing bowl and spoon paper plates
Instructions
1. While discussing dental health, make this healthy and tooth-friendly recipe.
2. Brainstorm with the children and decide what kinds of foods are good for your teeth. Create a chart showing their good food choices.
3. Choose some foods from the chart that can be combined easily to make a trail mix-type mixture. Some foods you might want to include are rice and wheat Chex-type cereals, raisins, pretzels, Ritz Bits, grapes, and goldfish crackers.
4. Ask the children to volunteer to bring in an ingredient for the Tooth Candy recipe and send a note home to parents. A sample note is:Dear Parents,This week we are learning about dental health. We have been discussing what foods are good or bad for our teeth. We have decided to work together to create a tasty, yet tooth-friendly, snack that we are calling Tooth Candy. The children have decided that one of the tooth-friendly ingredients for the recipe is (name food item). Please allow (child's name) to bring in one package of (name food item) to add to our Tooth Candy recipe.
5. When the children bring the ingredients to school, help them decide how much of each ingredient should go into the Tooth Candy. Provide measuring cups and let the children measure out the agreed-upon amount of each ingredient. Make sure you keep track of how much of each ingredient is used.
6. After mixing all the ingredients together, look at the notes you made and create a recipe from them.
7. Enjoy the Tooth Candy at snack time. While eating, remind the children that they are eating a healthy snack that is good for their teeth.
