Kids Take Dental Hygiene Lessons from FCCLA Students

Students from the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America program have been making skits with the help of Serve a Smile grants via the Minnesota Alliance with Youth and Delta Dental. The grant gives the FCCLA students with $650 to make activities with regards to proper nutrition and dental hygiene. They also give out toothbrushes and toothpastes.

For this year’s skit, the FCCLA students reimagined the classic Beauty and the Beast. The story focused on the fear of the Beast to visit the village dentist Gaston. The play was written by sophomore student Chelsea Young and it shared facts such as getting a dental checkup every six months and the importance of brushing the teeth twice a day.

Among the FCCLA students who performed in the play are Isabella Moorman, Joshua Anderson, Taylor Gustafson, Rick Osborne, Alex Pierce, and Anam Hasan. They also explained other dental tips such as how long they should brush their teeth.

Young also explained the different food groups to the children. She asked them to shout the name of their favorite vegetables and fruits. Their answers varied such as watermelon, carrot, corn, eggplant, and a lot more. One second grader stood out when he answered eggplant as his favorite vegetable and tilapia as his favorite source of protein. Hasan said that it is helpful for kids to be able to see old kids discuss healthy behaviors. The younger ones will be motivated to make healthier choices.

The Delta Dental of Minnesota and the FCCLA has given more than $30,000 in yearly youth service grants and dental supplies to various sites in the state. The Serve a Smile grant program was designed to support service projects that were made by the youth to promote oral health or overall health topics. The grants make the schools and communities healthier.

Photo by Milenafoto (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons