Skip to main content

Development site. The forms are real and what you enter is saved. No clinic is using it yet.

The Whole Bite Club
Sign up today

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

Back to the lesson

The Whole Bite Club · Year 3 and Year 4 · Lesson 2 · The visit

The Whole Bite Club visit

The visit is the centrepiece and the classroom lessons are built around it. Students take part in one coordinated session with the Oral Health Home team: a whole-class lesson, then small groups of four to six for brushing and between-teeth practice and an individual check. At Years 3–4 students are old enough to prepare a question in advance and record the answer, so this lesson gives them a job to do rather than only an experience to have. The deck forks, because a school with no visit booked still runs the lesson.

Learning intention

In this lesson, we will meet an oral health team, find out what a check-up looks for, and get our own questions answered.

Success criteria

I will know I am successful when I can:

  • I can name three things an oral health therapist looks for in a check-up.
  • I can ask the question I prepared.
  • I can write down the answer in my own words.

Guiding questions

  • What is someone actually looking for when they look in your mouth?
  • What would you ask a person who looks in mouths all day?
  • Why do we practise brushing instead of just being told about it?

Vocabulary

oral health therapist · check-up · plaque · remineralising varnish · sealant

Australian Curriculum

AC9HP4P09, AC9HP4P10

Support

  • Pre-teach the five words with pictures the day before. Give the three question stems on a card to keep. Two-column note frame so recording does not depend on writing speed.

Challenge

  • Take the role of class recorder and write the visit up as a short piece for the school newsletter, which feeds straight into lesson 5's message-making.

EAL/D

  • Sentence frames for both halves of the sheet. Allow the question to be drafted in the home language and translated with a partner. The therapist can be asked to speak slowly on request, arranged before the day.

Disability

  • The written answer may be spoken, recorded or drawn. A student who does not want to be looked at individually is never singled out; the small-group session is arranged with the teacher in advance, and the classroom half of the lesson stands alone.

Exit ticket

  • Name two things an oral health therapist looks for in a check-up.
  • Your friend is worried about going to the dentist next week. What is one true thing you could tell them about what happens?

Assessment as learning

The recorded answer shows whether the student can restate rather than copy, which is the beginning of the AC9HP4P09 skill.

Rubric line

Records a health message from a person in their own words.

Working towards

records an answer, mostly copied

At standard

records the answer in their own words so it still makes sense

Above

does that and adds what they would ask next

Inclusion notes

  • A child who discloses dental pain or fear needs the guide's disclosure protocol, which is prepared before this day and not during it: take it seriously, do not attempt treatment, contact the family the same day, and point to public dental services and the Child Dental Benefits Schedule.
  • Cost is never mentioned in front of the class.

Resources

  • Years 3 – 6 Supporting Resource Pack
  • Printed My question, their answer sheet, one per student
  • The three question stems on a card, one per table
  • Class chart or whiteboard
  • The guide's disclosure protocol, read before the day, not on it

Worksheets to print

  • My question, their answer · /downloads/3-4/my-question-their-answer.pdf
  • My visit · /downloads/my-oral-health-visit-worksheet.pdf
  • Food texture teeth map · /downloads/food-texture-teeth-map.docx
  • Bite, chew, count! · /downloads/which-tooth-chew-count-activity.docx
  • Interview record · /downloads/5-6/interview-record.pdf
  • Lesson 2: The Whole Bite Club visit (PowerPoint) · /downloads/decks/f-2/02-the-visit-slides.pptx
  • Lesson 2: The Whole Bite Club visit (PowerPoint) · /downloads/decks/3-4/02-the-visit-slides.pptx
  • Lesson 2: The Whole Bite Club visit (PowerPoint) · /downloads/decks/5-6/02-the-visit-slides.pptx
Oral Health Home · admin@oralhealthhome.com · www.oralhealthhome.com. Lesson text is reproduced from the Whole Bite Club teacher guide.

The Whole Bite Club visit · 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. 1.TitleThe Whole Bite Club visit

    Today we meet an oral health team, find out what a check-up looks for, and get our own questions answered.

  2. 2.Success criteriaWe will know we can do it when:

    The third is the one collected.

  3. 3.QuestionWhat is someone actually looking for when they look in your mouth?

    Onto the chart. Expect "holes". Widen it: gums, how teeth are growing in, whether anything hurts.

  4. 4.SlideWhat they look for

    The three things the first success criterion asks students to name, on screen rather than only in the hook's note, so a class with a visit booked meets them before the fork. The exit ticket asks for two of them.

  5. 5.SlideWho is coming

    Tell-show-do. Never say needle, drill, pain, hurt or pull, and never say "it won't hurt".

  6. 6.SlideYour question

    Thirty seconds to choose a stem, then write. Everyone reads theirs to a partner so nobody arrives without one.

  7. 7.Choose a pathIs your class having a Whole Bite Club visit?

    Choose the branch. Everything after this works either way; nothing in the unit depends on the visit.

  8. 8.GameA check-up, in order

    Existing game. Five pictures into order. Run it before the visit so the shape of the session is already known.

  9. 9.SlideVarnish and sealants

    The varnish is for everyone whose family consented and the sealant is not for everyone, which is the honest pair. Say the first out loud, so nobody reads having it, or not having it, as a verdict on their teeth; consent is settled before the day rather than in the room. The visit checks for sealants and does not place them. A tooth that already has decay may need a second treatment, one that stops early decay getting worse and that can leave the spot dark: that is a conversation with the family, never with the class, because no child's teeth are compared in front of the others. Never say the other word for the varnish.

  10. 10.WorksheetMy question, their answer

    Top half before, bottom half after. In your own words, not copied.

  11. 11.Exit ticketName two things an oral health therapist looks for in a check-up.

    The two questions from the lesson plan. The application question is the one that shows whether the tell-show-do language landed.

  12. 12.RecapWhat we found out

    Then ask: what surprised you? Take three answers and stop.

If your visit is booked

These slides come straight after slide 7, then the lesson rejoins the notes above.

  1. 1.SlidePart 1 — all together

    The whole-class session. Students keep their question sheet on the desk.

  2. 2.SlidePart 2 — small groups

    About 15 minutes per group. Consent is settled with families before the day; it is not discussed in front of the class.

If there is no visit yet

These slides come straight after slide 7, then the lesson rejoins the notes above.

  1. 1.SlideWhat happens at a check-up

    The order, in neutral words, so students know before they go. This branch stands alone.

Oral Health Home · admin@oralhealthhome.com. Prototype handout.

Where this comes from

  1. Kids Health Info: Dental care · The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne · Opened 5 September 2026. That a check-up is a regular habit rather than something you go for when a tooth hurts, and roughly how often children go. https://www.rch.org.au/kidsinfo/fact_sheets/Dental_care/
  2. Dental Care For Kids · Australian Dental Association · Opened 5 September 2026. That cleaning between teeth starts once two teeth touch, which is why a brush on its own is not the whole job. https://teeth.org.au/dental-care-for-kids
  3. Policy Statement 2.2.1 - Fluoride Use · Australian Dental Association · Opened 5 September 2026. That professional application of a remineralising varnish is a clinical decision an oral health professional makes, rather than a routine applied to a whole population without one. It is not cited for what the Whole Bite Club visit does — painted on every child whose family said yes — which is the clinicians' own account of their own program and is registered as that. https://ada.org.au/policy-statement-2-2-1-fluoride-use
  4. Fissure sealant · Australian Dental Association · Opened 5 September 2026. That the grooves on a new back tooth are very thin and deep and trap food and bacteria, that a sealant closes them, and that not every child or every tooth needs one. https://teeth.org.au/fissure-sealant