Animals including Humans Year 4 Lesson 4 LI: To understand the function of the human teeth.

Input Run your tongue along you teeth. What do you feel? Do all your teeth feel the same? Get the children to feel their teeth with their tongue- what do they feel like? Is every tooth the same?

Why do we need teeth? Animals need to teeth in order to cut, chew and break up the food they eat. This is an important part of digestion as it makes the food smaller so it can be swallowed where the nutrients will be absorbed into the bloodstream. Why do we need teeth? Explain about how why we need teeth- for making the food we eat smaller to help with digestion.

Two sets of teeth Who has gaps in their mouth where a tooth has fallen out? Humans do not have the same set of teeth for their whole life time. Humans have two sets of teeth in their life time. A baby grows the first set of teeth, called milk teeth. These fall out around between 5-12 years old. This makes way for the permanent teeth to grow through. The reason we have two sets is because a full set of adult teeth would not fit inside a young child’s mouth. Explain that humans don’t have the same set of teeth for our whole life- we have 2 sets.

Different types of teeth Your teeth feel different, and look different from one another, because they have different jobs to do. Incisors: Canine: Premolars: Molars: Explain the different roles for the different teeth in our mouth.

Incisors These teeth are located at the front of the mouth. They are the sharpest teeth and are designed to cut the food.

Canine These teeth are in the corners of your mouth because they grip, pierce and tear the food.

Premolars These teeth are found just behind the canine teeth. They are more flat at the top that the canine teeth as their job is to crush the food.

Molars These teeth are located at the very back of an adult’s mouth. They are bigger than the premolars and their job is to chew and grind the food into small pieces.

Different animal’s teeth How do you think other animal’s teeth will differ from a humans? Think about what food they might eat. Ask children about how they think other animal’s teeth will differ from human teeth now they know about their function. Get the children to think back to the previous lesson where they learnt about the diet of different animals.

Different animal’s teeth Carnivores and herbivores have different types of teeth to suit the different types of food they eat. Carnivores have well developed canine teeth in order to cut through the meat. Herbivores have well developed molars for grinding the grass and plant material.

Activity Identify the different teeth. Fill in the blank worksheet. Children have to identify the different teeth found in the mouth- they could either colour the different types of teeth and create a key or they could draw lines to label the teeth. The children then have to fill in the gaps to write a paragraph about the different teeth.

Plenary How do we keep our teeth healthy? Why do we need to keep our teeth healthy? Inform the children about the importance of keeping their teeth healthy- discuss tooth decay. Brushing your teeth twice a day for 2 minutes helps get fid of plaque which is a bacteria that coats the teeth. Plaque contributes to gum disease and tooth decay.