The Brushing Challenge is a fun, week-long activity where students track their morning and evening brushing at home with their families. Each child gets a chart to take home, and at the end of the week, all participating classrooms celebrate their success.

Every student who completes the challenge earns a Brushing Champion certificate to recognize their accomplishment and build pride in their new healthy habit.

It’s a 5-day, 30-minute-per-day program designed for kids ages 3-6. Each lesson includes music, stories, and hands-on activities to make oral health fun and engaging.

Classrooms that complete the full Dental Health Week program—including teaching the 5-day curriculum and submitting the Brushing Challenge charts—will be automatically entered into our giveaway. At the end of February, we’ll randomly select 3 winning classrooms to receive a $50 DonorsChoose gift card.

No — the curriculum is completely free. Some activities include optional suggestions that use common classroom supplies you likely already have or inexpensive materials that can be purchased separately.

After you register on the website, we’ll match your classroom with a local dentist who will visit for one 30-minute session.

Yes! The Brushing Buddies curriculum is aligned with New York State Pre-K and Kindergarten Standards across multiple domains:

• Physical Development & Health (PDH): Eye-hand coordination, personal care and hygiene skills, and healthy habit awareness.
• Mathematics (MATH): Connecting counting to brushing for 2 minutes and sorting foods into healthy vs. unhealthy categories.
• Social Studies (SOC): Understanding community helpers like dentists and farmers.
• Approaches to Communication (AC): Building background knowledge (why brushing matters) and observing through science activities and dentist visits.
  

Absolutely. The curriculum is complete on its own, but the dentist visit adds a fun “community helper” experience for students.