The lesson plan, then the notes for every slide. Print on A4 and take the second sheet to the board.

The Whole Bite Club · Year 3 and Year 4 · Lesson 1 · Before the visit

The teeth you keep

This lesson runs before the Whole Bite Club visit. Students find out that the adult teeth arriving in their mouths right now are the last set they will get, that four of them arrived at the back at about six without anything falling out to make room, and that a brand new adult tooth is not yet as tough as it will be. It sets up the visit by giving students something specific to look for in their own mouths.

Learning intention

In this lesson, we will find out which of our teeth are here for life, and what a tooth is made of.

Success criteria

I will know I am successful when I can:

I can explain that adult teeth do not grow back, and say why that changes how we look after them.
I can find my first adult molars and say when they arrived.
I can shade a tooth chart to show which of my teeth are baby teeth and which are adult teeth.

Guiding questions

Which of the teeth in your mouth now will still be there when you are thirty?
Why are the first adult molars the easiest teeth to miss?
What is a tooth actually made of?

Vocabulary

permanent tooth · molar · erupt · enamel · dentine

Australian Curriculum

AC9HP4P10

Support

Give the chart with the first molars already shaded as a worked example on a second small diagram beside it. Offer a mirror and a partner. Accept the sentence spoken and scribed.

Challenge

Plot your own eruption timeline against the arrival ages and work out how many years of mixed mouth you have left. Then compare a human molar with a sheep's and a cat's and explain the shapes from what each animal eats.

EAL/D

Pre-teach the five words the day before, each with a picture. Give the sentence frame "The tooth I most want to keep is my …………… because ……………". Let students name teeth in their home language first, then in English.

Disability

Nothing goes in any child's mouth; the tongue check is optional and can be replaced by pointing at a large diagram. Provide the chart at A3 with thicker outlines for students with fine-motor or vision needs. The shading key uses a pattern, not a colour, so colour is never the only signal.

Exit ticket

Do adult teeth grow back if they are lost?
Mia says the wide teeth at the very back of her mouth are baby teeth, because none of them has ever wobbled. What would you tell her?

Assessment for learning

The shaded chart is a diagnostic collected in lesson 1 and returned in lesson 5, so students can see what they knew at the start.

Rubric line

Identifies which of their own teeth are permanent.

Working towards

shades a chart and names at least one adult tooth

At standard

shades the chart with the four first permanent molars correctly marked as adult teeth

Above

does that and explains, using the arrival ages, why nothing wobbled first

Inclusion notes

Tooth-loss customs vary and the tooth fairy is not universal; if the loss of baby teeth comes up, ask what happens at your place rather than assuming.
No child's number of adult teeth is compared publicly or recorded by name.

Resources

Years 3 – 6 Supporting Resource Pack
Printed My mixed mouth chart, one per student, A4 and A3
Hand mirrors, one per pair, optional
Class chart or whiteboard for the hook
Large tooth cross-section diagram for the enamel and dentine slide

Worksheets to print

My mixed mouth · /downloads/3-4/my-mixed-mouth.pdf
Lesson 1: The teeth you keep (PowerPoint) · /downloads/decks/3-4/01-the-teeth-you-keep-slides.pptx

The teeth you keep · handout for the whiteboard

Teacher notes, slide by slide

The number beside each note is the slide it belongs to, counting from the first.

1.TitleThe teeth you keep
In this lesson, we will find out which of our teeth are here for life, and what a tooth is made of. The Oral Health Home team are coming, and this lesson gets the class ready to look closely.
2.Success criteriaWe will know we can do it when:
Read all three. Point at the third one and say it is the one you will collect at the end.
3.QuestionWhich of the teeth in your mouth now will still be there when you are thirty?
Take every answer onto the class chart. Do not correct any of them yet; they get checked at the recap.
4.SlideTwo sets, one lifetime
20 baby teeth by about age three, 32 permanent teeth in the end. The point is the last line, not the numbers.
5.PictureThe teeth that arrived in secret
The purple ones at the very back are the four this slide is about.
6.SlideThe teeth that arrived in secret
These are the first permanent molars. They erupt behind the last baby molars and replace nothing, so there is no wobble and no fairy. Many children and adults think they are baby teeth.
7.QuestionCan you find yours? Run your tongue to the very back. Top and bottom. Both sides.
Give it a full minute. Pairs compare. Mirrors for anyone who wants one, and pointing at the diagram is fine for anyone who does not.
8.PictureThe slow change
Left to right: six, nine, twelve. Ask what changed between each pair.
9.SlideThe slow change
Say "around", never "by". Wide variation is normal. A child ahead of or behind this table is not doing anything wrong.
10.PictureInside a tooth
Outside in: the hard shell, the softer layer, the living centre.
11.SlideInside a tooth
Enamel, dentine, pulp. Do not say enamel is the hardest material the body makes; no Australian source in our set says it and it is on the clinicians' list.
12.GameWhere are my teeth?
Existing game, reused. Children put each kind of tooth where it lives. Thirty seconds each, then straight into the chart.
13.SlideNew teeth need the most help
Post-eruptive maturation: enamel keeps taking up mineral after the tooth arrives, and susceptibility to acid falls with post-eruptive age. Never say "weak" or "not finished".
14.WorksheetMy mixed mouth
Shade your own chart, then finish the sentence. Collect these; check only whether the four circled back teeth are shaded as adult teeth.
15.Exit ticketDo adult teeth grow back if they are lost?
The two questions from the lesson plan, on screen so the class can answer them without a handout. Recall first, then application.
16.RecapWhat we found out
Go back to the class chart from slide 3 and check the predictions against what we found. Next lesson, the Oral Health Home team are here.

Where this comes from

Teeth development in children · Better Health Channel · Opened 5 September 2026. That children grow two sets of teeth, roughly when each adult tooth arrives, and that baby teeth hold the space the adult teeth need. https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/teeth-development-in-children
Dental erosion · Better Health Channel · Opened 5 September 2026. That acid alone wears enamel away with no germs involved, which is why a sugar-free soft drink is still hard on teeth, and the advice to wait about half an hour after something acidic before brushing. https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/dental-erosion
The primary and mixed dentition, post-eruptive enamel maturation and dental caries: a review · Richard J M Lynch, International Dental Journal, December 2013, read on PubMed · Opened 5 September 2026. That both sets of teeth are in the mouth together until about twelve, that baby teeth guide the adult ones into place, and that new enamel keeps hardening after a tooth arrives. The publisher's own page refuses automated clients, so this is the PubMed record for the same article. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24283279/ · doi:10.1111/idj.12076