You have come to the right place if you are looking for fun, engaging and exciting Health and Hygiene themed activities to do with toddlers, preschoolers and kindergartners. Our activities are widely used by teachers, moms, dads, child care providers and more!

All our activities are available at no cost and are free to print and share. Select below to get started.

Health and Hygiene Arts and Crafts

Art
Yellow construction paper teeth, white paint and toothbrushes. Have children brush the yellow teeth with the white paint. Frame the completed ‘smiles with red construction paper lips!

Art II
Group collage: magazine pictures of smiles. (Not whole faces, just mouths – any kind – human or animal!)

Sensory
Cut the bottoms off of large plastic soda bottles and turn them upside down – they look like teeth! Spray them with shaving creme and give the kids toothbrushes to brush the teeth clean.

Science
Scrounge some small white ceramic tiles (from construction sites, tile stores, parents who are remodeling etc). Provide children with a variety of food products to smear on the tiles such as: jelly, ketchup, syrup,peanut butter etc, have children brush the teeth with toothbrushes and real toothpaste. Which tiles are stained?

Making Toothpaste

Materials
* 4 tsp. baking soda
*1 tsp. salt
*1 tsp flavoring(vanilla, almond or peppermint Extract)
*toothbrush
*floss
*airtight containers
Mix together, put in containers. Dampen toothbrush and dip in mixture to use.

Good Food Collage
Make a “good food” for their teeth collage out of pictures from magazines. They might even want to hang them on their own refrigerator to remind them which foods are healthy.

Paper Plate Meals
Have the children look through magazines to find pictures of different kinds of foods. Then have them cut out the pictures and glue them onto paper plates to make ‘breakfasts’, ‘lunches’ or ‘dinners’.

Pizza Collage
Materials Needed:
Round piece of tagboard
Glue
Red tempera paint,
Yellow & white Easter grass or yarn scraps
green, red, and black felt
brown scraps of paper

Procedure:
1. Mix red tempera with glue. Let children paint tagboard with red glue.
2. Tear brown scraps of paper and crumple them. Stick them to tagboard (sausage). Use green felt (peppers); red felt (tomatoes); black felt (olives); Easter grass or yarn (cheese).

 

Health and Hygiene Games and Activities

How To Sneeze
The new recommended way is to cough or sneeze into the crook of your arm instead of the hand if no Kleenex is available.

Group Time/Math
Graph favorite toothpaste flavors – mint, bubble gum or fruit?

Dramatic Play
Dentist office (call your dentist for donations!)

Dental Health
One thing you can do when doing dental health is to hard boil an egg ahead of time. Then bring in some dark soda. Place the egg in the soda for a day. Then the next day talk about why we should keep our teeth clean and how we can keep them clean. Then take the egg out. It is discolored, yellow, looks like plaque. Take a tooth brush with a little tooth paste, that’s how you can fit in how much they should be using, and brush it off. It REALLY comes off. They love it. They each get a turn.

Playing Doctor
Let the children dress up in white shirts or smocks and take turns playing doctor/patient. You could bring out a shoe box filled with different supplies, bandages, popsicle sticks for tongue depressors, empty ball point pen for pretend needles, etc)

Visiting the Doctor
You could discuss why it is important to see the doctor regularly. Ask if anyone knows how to use a stethoscope and ask if they know what a heartbeat is. If they put their hands over their heart they might be able to feel it beating. You could show them how to take a pulse on their wrists and on their neck.

Health Talk
You could discuss the difference between baby teeth and permanent teeth. Discuss how it feels to lose a tooth. Other children might be able to tell you about caring for their teeth, you can emphasize:
teeth should be brushed in the morning and before bed teeth should be brushed after meals when you can flossing is important, too sweet and sticky foods need to be rinsed or brushed off as soon as possible.
Can the children tell you the kinds of foods that are good for their teeth? What are good breakfast foods? What are good snacks?

Magic exercises
Discuss the importance of exercise and a healthy body. Let the children suggest what kind of exercises to do.
* standing on their toes
* clapping both hands over their heads
* standing on one foot
* wishing hard
* clapping both hands behind their backs
* waving a magic wand
Put the exercises together to make a simple routine. See if the children can repeat them several times.

Fishing for Good Foods
Children can cut pictures from magazines (or for the little ones have them already cut) from the five basic food groups. Have the children glue these pictures onto a fish shape cut from construction paper. Slip a paper clip onto the front of each fish.

Make a fishing pole from a dowel and tie a magnet onto the end of the string. Label five small buckets with the name/picture of each food group. Have the children try to catch a fish and encourage them to decide which group the food belongs to and then put the fish in the correct bucket.

Separating Solids
Mix one cup of beans, one cup of salt and one cup of rice together in a bowl. Provide the children with a strainer and a colander and tell them to separate the items in the bowl into three separate bowls–one with beans, one with salt and one with rice. After the children are successful. ask them if they can think of another way to accomplish the task.

 

Health and Hygiene Recipes and Snacks

Fruit Plate (lunch or snack)
Give each child a paper plate and sliced fruit. Ask them to create themselves using the slices of fruit. Example; grapes for eyes, sliced apple for eye brows, banana sliced lengthwise for a mouth and a kiwi slice for a nose. This presents an ideal time to discuss the importance of eating well to maintain healthy bodies. When their creation is finished they may eat the fruit plate for snack!

Taste Testing Various food items
Blindfold
Cut up and clean various food items. Blindfold your child and have him/her taste and smell different foods. Have him/her describe the various tastes, smells and textures before they guess what it is.

Melon Bowl

Watermelon & various other melons
Knife
Melon ball scoop or small ice cream scoop
Adult cuts a watermelon in half. Have kids scoop out the inside using an ice cream scoop or melon baller. Cut open other melons and have kids make balls with the melon ball scoop from the other melons. Fill the watermelon with balls from the various melons. This makes a great summer snack or dessert.

Happy Face Sandwiches
Bread
Peanut butter
Raisins
Alfalfa or bean sprouts
Squeezable cheese
Other small food items
Spread peanut butter on one side of bread – open faced. Have child make eyes, nose, mouth and hair from other items provided. Encourage kids to be creative and eat what they create.

 

Health and Hygiene Songs, Poems and Finger Plays

Growing Song
(tune: Are you Sleeping)
We need food and we need water
We need sleep, lots of sleep
To help our bodies grow
From our heads down to our toes
Grow, grow, grow
Grow, grow, grow.

Meet the Veggies
Tomato: I’m round and red
And juicy too.
Chop me for a salad,
Or dump me in your stew!

Lettuce: Hey, wait a minute!
If a salad you’re fixin’
I can stand alone.
No need for the mixin’!

Onion: Chop me and slice me
But keep water near.
I sometimes get juicy
And can bring on a tear!

Carrot: Orange is my color;
I stand long and lean.
In the garden ?you’ll see
Just my bright leaves of green.

Pea: I live in a pod
With so many others.
I think I was born
With one hundred brothers!

Green Bean: Look in the garden;
You’ll see my sign.
Then bring out your basket
When it’s pickin’ time!

Potato: I’ve an eye for perfection
To give you the ?best.
Baked, mashed or fried–
I’ll pass the test!

Cabbage: My head is quite thick
So people tell me.
I guess that’s the reason
Grocery stores sell me!

Celery: Cut and rinse my stalks,
Then spread on cream cheese.
A refreshing hors d’oeuvre
To make parties a breeze!

Squash: Some call me a game,
A game of good sport,
but I’m really to eat
As a side dish of sorts!

Brussel Sprout: I’m kinda cute
When I’m served on a plate
I’m just a little mouthful.
You can eat six or eight!

Cauliflower: I carry white flowers
To break off and eat.
I’m sometimes served raw,
A nutritious snack treat!

Broccoli: My friends call me trees:
Now that’s a funny name.
Though I am a dark green
With stalks just the same.

We’re the veggies
You should eat every day!
Now don’t make a face.
We’re as good as we say!

Cheese Please
(tune: 3 blind mice)

Cheese, cheese, cheese we love cheese
Please, please please give us cheese
We like white cheese oh yes we do
Orange cheese taste wonderful to
Yellow cheese is for me and you
Oh, give us cheese

Did You Ever See A Kiwi?
(tune: did you ever see a lassie)

Did you ever see a kiwi, a kiwi, a kiwi
Did you ever see a kiwi it’s small and it’s brown
It’s brown on the outside and green on the inside
Did you ever see a kiwi it’s small and it’s brown
Did you ever taste a kiwi a kiwi a kiwi
Did you ever taste a kiwi it’s soft and it’s sweet
It’s good and nutritious and really delicious
Did you ever taste a kiwi it’s soft and it’s sweet

Sneezing Song
I think –I am going to sneeze ..(ha chew!)
I think –I am going to sneeze ..(ha chew)
If you sneeze, pass the tissue please….
Ha Chew, Ha Chew, Ha Chew

Pass around a box of tissue at the very beginning of school. Each child takes one, teach the song then sneeze and then we get up and
throw the tissue away. The practice is a good practice to show them where the dirty tissues belong and that you don’t want to have to pick up someone else’s dirty tissue. Make a picture, but trace their hand and glue a tissue to it. Title it “I think I am going to sneeze!”

Here is a poem to use with your germ unit.
When you cough or when you sneeze,
will you think of others please.
Use a tissue or your hand,
so on friends your germs won’t land.

Title: The Shape-Up Song
Sung to ‘Farmer in the Dell’
We’re jumping up and down
We’re jumping up and down
We’re getting lots of exercise
We’re jumping up and down.
We bend and touch our toes…..
We kick our legs up high……
We jog around the room…….
We wiggle our whole body….
We stretch up to the sky…….

Tooth brushing song
Brush your teeth (chchchh, chchchchchhh)– those are brushing sounds
When you wake up in the morning and its quarter to 2, everyone’s asleep and there’s nothing else to do…you brush you teeth (chchchh, chchchchchhh)

When you wake up in the morning it’s a quarter to one, and you want to have a little fun….you brush your teeth (chchchch, chchchchchch)

When you wake up in the morning it’s a quarter to two, and you’re lookin around for something to do….you brush your teeth (brushing sound)

When you wake up in the morning it’s a quarter to three, and your mind is humming twiddledeedee….you brush your teeth (brushing sound)

When you wake up in the morning it’s a quarter to four, and you think you hear a knock at your door….you brush your teeth (brushing sound)

When you wake up in the morning it’s a quarter to five, and you just can’t wait to come alive …..you brush your teeth (brushing sound)….you brush your teeth (brushing sound) ….your brush your teeth (getting progressively quieter, until brush your teeth comes out in a whisper)

 

 

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