TEETH AND EATING YEAR 3/4
Second Year of the Rolling Programme
Autumn Term 1
ABOUT THIS UNIT
Work in this unit should reinforce and develop children’s knowledge of their personal health and how this relates to
diet. They should learn about how teeth are related to diet and the importance of dental care.
Experimental and investigative work focuses on:
deciding what evidence to collect
deciding whether evidence is sufficient to support conclusions.
Work also offers opportunities for children to relate understanding of science to their personal health.
This work is likely to be undertaken in relation to the school’s programme for personal, social and health education.
This unit takes approximately 12 hours.
WHERE THE UNIT FITS IN VOCABULARY RESOURCES
Builds on Unit 1A ‘Ourselves’ and In this unit children will have secondary sources e.g. CD-ROMs,
Unit 2A ‘Health and growth’ opportunities to use: reference books providing
Children need: words and phrases related to life information about food types and
to know that what they eat is processes e.g. feed, feeding, diets of animals
important for keeping healthy growth, activity models of teeth or real teeth,
to recognise a range of different words to name and describe small mirrors for examining teeth
foods. groups of foods e.g. vegetables, video about teeth
Links with design and technology and meat, fish, sugars and starches, collection of foods/food packets
geography. fruit, fats
names of different teeth egg
incisor, molar, canine
words which have different
meanings in other contexts e.g.
diet, root, activity, decay,
evidence, conclusion,
expressions making generalisations.
EXPECTATIONS AT THE END OF THE UNIT
describe an adequate and varied diet for humans, recognising that there are
most children will:
many ways of achieving this; explain how they should look after their teeth
and recognise why they need to do so; suggest questions about diet to be
investigated; make relevant observations and present results in bar charts
and tables
some children will not have describe some of the types of food that they eat; recognise they need to
made so much progress and will: take care of their teeth; make observations and record these in tables
some children will have progressed evaluate how strongly the evidence they have collected supports the
further and will also: conclusion they have drawn; state that animals have different diets and
may have different kinds of teeth
Class _______ Term: _____________
TEETH AND EATING Y3/4
LEARNING SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES
OUTCOMES
Revisit ideas about diet from Unit 2A
To find out the
‘Health and growth’, asking children
children’s present
separate questions about what they
knowledge and
eat and what they like to eat.
understanding
about teeth and
eating.
Sort and group foods Visit a local supermarket or market to look
into broad categories at the range of foods available or use
e.g. vegetables, secondary sources and a collection of
meat, fish, fruit etc. foods. Group foods into broad categories
e.g. meat and fish, fats, starches and
Sort foods in a sugars, vegetables, fruit. Introduce the
variety of different concept of groups of foods for particular
ways and give purposes e.g. some foods, particularly
explanations for their meat, fish, cheese, lentils, beans, supply
choices. what we need for growth; fats, sugars and
starches provide what we need to be
Sort and group foods active. Ask children to record their
according to what the groupings in drawing and writing.
body uses them for
e.g. those that are All off-site visits must be
needed for growth undertaken in accordance with LEA/school
and those that enable guidelines.
us to be active.
Identify and name
some of the foods Present children with a collection of
from the different pictures to illustrate types of food
food groups. from different cultures or invite
someone e.g. a vegetarian or vegan or
Understand that an owner of a restaurant whose diet
foods can be divided
may be unfamiliar to the children to
up into different
visit and discuss their diet, explaining
groups according to
what the body uses
how they ensure that they have
them for. adequate amounts of food types. Ask
children to describe using drawings
Explain that, in order and writing how they aim to have a
to stay healthy, we balanced and varied diet. Talk with
should eat from all of the children about different diets
the different food and explain the scientific use of the
groups and that this is
word ‘diet’.
what the term
‘balanced diet’ means.
Class _______ Term: _____________
TEETH AND EATING Y3/4
LEARNING SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES
OUTCOMES
Identify different sorts Ask children to find out using direct observation
of food eaten by animals. or secondary sources e.g. reference books, CD-
With help suggest a ROMs what local/familiar animals eat. Ask them
question that they could to suggest questions e.g. Do all cats eat the
investigate. Present same food? Do cats and dogs eat the same? Do
results in a pictogram. animals prefer particular foods? Ask children
who have pets to talk about the preferences of
Suggest a question in a their pets.
form that could be
investigated e.g. Do cats Decide as a class on one question to investigate
eat fish, chicken, rabbit, e.g. Do all cats eat the same food? Discuss what
tinned food? With help evidence to collect e.g. which cats should be
present results in a included, and how to describe different sorts of
suitable bar chart. Answer food (fish, chicken, tinned food). Help children
questions about their to decide how to collect and present the
graph. evidence e.g. tables, pictograms or bar charts.
Talk with children about how good the evidence
Present results in a bar is e.g. how many pets there were in the sample.
chart. Interpret the graph Decide what, if any, conclusions can be drawn.
and report their findings.
Draw conclusions.
Name and identify Ask children about their teeth and the
molars, canines and function of different teeth and gums. Ask
incisors, either from
them to describe which of their milk teeth
drawings or models, and
they have left and let them use a mirror
explain the function of
each type of tooth. Say to look at their teeth.
why teeth are Present children with examples of teeth.
important.
Ask them to describe the teeth and say
Compare molars and
where they are found in the mouth and
incisors and suggest what
it is about their shape what makes them suitable for their
that makes them suitable purposes.
for their purpose e.g.
incisors are sharp for Any real teeth must be sterilised
cutting. before being taken to the classroom. It is
Make generalisations
possible to obtain ‘cleaned’ human teeth
about why different
and/or plastic models of teeth from
animals have different
kinds of teeth i.e. they laboratory suppliers.
are adapted to suit the
food they eat.
Know that humans have
two sets of teeth, milk
Talk with children about losing milk
teeth and adult teeth.
Identify particular
teeth and explain its relation to growth.
foods e.g. sticky sweet Show a video about teeth and tooth
foods as damaging and decay. Ask children to draw two strip
others e.g. carrots, cartoons ‘child loses a tooth’ and ‘adult
apples as less damaging.
loses a tooth’ showing different
List things we can do to
keep teeth and gums
endings.
healthy. Invite the school nurse or other health
Explain the importance of professional to give a demonstration
taking care of our teeth about cleaning teeth and its importance
and say why we need to
in preventing tooth decay and gum
look after our adult
teeth in particular. disease. Present children with pictures
Explain why in the of a range of food and drinks and ask
evening, they should not them to suggest which ones would be
eat after cleaning their
particularly damaging. Discuss when it
teeth before going to
bed
is most important to clean teeth.
Class _______ Term: _____________
TEETH AND EATING Y3/4
LEARNING SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES
OUTCOMES
Describe the eggshell
before and after it Make a collection of different types
was placed in one of of drinks e.g. ribena, fruit juice, milk,
the drinks. coke. Place a piece of eggshell in each
of the drinks (use water as a control)
Use comparative and monitor what happens to the shell
language to compare
over a period of about a week.
the effects of the
Discuss the importance of a fair test
different drinks on
the eggshells.
with the children.
Identify drinks that
are particularly
damaging to their
teeth. Give simple
explanations for their
observations.
Review work on teeth and eating
by asking children to make fact-
sheets of what they have learned
about their teeth, their
protection and how a varied,
balanced and healthy diet can be
achieved in a variety of different
ways.