Hello, scientists.

My name is Mr. Wilshire, and in this lesson we are going to be looking at the functions of teeth.

The outcome of our lesson is to explain the simple functions of the different types of human teeth.

There are some key words to look through before we start our lesson.

The first of them is digestive system, then, functions now, incisors, after that, canines and finally, molars.

These are words that you might have come across before in your learning.

If you are not too sure what they mean, don't worry because there are some definitions here for you to look through.

Pause a video here if you are not too sure about what these mean.

Have a read, and restart the video when you are ready.

Let's take the first bite outta this part of our lesson.

It's called, why we have teeth.

Well, think about what it would be like to have no teeth at all.

If you do this and cover your teeth up with your lips, you might start to feel like it, and you sound a little bit odd as well, don't you? Hmm.

What would be difficult to do without any teeth at all? Pause the video here and have a quick discussion.

Restart when you've done that.

Hopefully you've had a good go at thinking about what it would be like without any teeth and what would be really difficult to do.

I wonder if any of you were able to speak clearly without any teeth, just like I did, covering up my teeth with my mouth there.

Our lips, tongue, and teeth control how much air flows out of our mouth.

Here, you can see two people talking.

If you talk to a partner and try to see how their lips, tongue, and teeth work together to form words.

Hopefully you'll see this as well.

You may even feel some of the air coming outta their mouth.

Sometimes when we talk as well, little bits of spit may accidentally come out of our mouths.

Our teeth, and our lips and our tongue are there to try and control the amount that's coming out.

Have a quick discussion with a partner and look at how their mouth moves.

Restart the video when you've done that.

Now we need teeth to be able to break down the food that we put into our mouth so that we can swallow it.

Otherwise, it would be very hard to chew, wouldn't it? If you are eating food like in the picture there, well, you wouldn't really be able to chomp it all up and break it down and you'd just be swallowing very, very big bits.

We also need to break down food so that our body can use nutrients from what we eat to grow and stay healthy.

This process is called digestion.

The food enters our bodies and needs to go down into the rest of our bodies to be processed and digested.

The human digestive system consists of different parts inside the body.

It's all connected together.

This helps us to digest food.

Digesting food means to break it down.

Teeth are really important part of the human digestive system.

Teeth are important because they break food into smaller pieces.

Just like the grapes you can see being eaten in the picture there.

If you put a whole grape into your mouth that would be dangerous.

It might get blocked somewhere in your body.

You don't want that, so you need to make sure you use your teeth to break it down before it starts entering the rest.

In this way, your teeth are the first line of defence for your body to enable you to stay alive and not choke.

True or false here? Teeth are part of the system of bones in the human skeleton.

The answer here is false.

Hmm, they're not bones then.

Let's justify our answer.

Are they part of the digestive system or are they part of the muscles? The answer here is that they are part of their digestive system.

They're not a muscle, and they are certainly not bones.

Humans have different types of teeth called incisors, canines, and molars.

You may have learn some of this information before.

Alex says, "Do you know where different types of teeth are positioned in your mouth?" Hmm.

Pause the video here, and have a search around with your tongue.

Can you feel molars, the incisors and the canines? Have a feel, and restart when you've done that.

Incisors are found at the front of your mouth.

Canines are either side of your incisors, and your molars, are found at the back of your mouth.

Oh, yes, they are.

They're the slightly bigger bumpier ones.

Different types of teeth work together to prepare food to travel through the digestive system.

Alex says, "Different teeth have different names, but they're all the same shape." And Sofia says, "Different teeth all do the same job, which is to break down food into smaller pieces." What do you think here? Are both of these children correct? Pause a video and restart when you've had a quick discussion.

I wonder what you discussed.

Did you agree with both of these children? Are they correct but also not correct at the same time? Hmm.

I wonder what parts they've got right and what parts they've got wrong.

Let's move on and find out.

Human teeth are different shapes and sizes because they perform different functions when we eat.

Here's an example of a mouth there with lots of different teeth inside.

This means that molars, canines and incisors have different jobs to do when they break down food into smaller pieces.

So each of the teeth are different shapes and they're different sizes.

They all have a different job to do.

I wonder what does what then do then.

Molars, do they cut things up? Do the canines, do they mash things up? I'm not sure.

Let's move on and find out more.

Stop and think.

Different teeth have different functions.

What does this mean? Is it that different teeth are different jobs, different teeth are different shapes? Or is it that different teeth grow at different times? Pause the video and have a discussion.

Restart when you've done that.

The answer here is that different teeth have different jobs to do.

All of the teeth do different jobs.

That means that their function is different to each other.

Who do you think is correct here? Alex says, "Different teeth work together to break down food so it can travel through the body." Sofia says, "Different teeth work together to break down food so that it tastes better." Hmm.

Who here is correct? Is it because it tastes better, or is it to break it down? Alex is correct here, isn't he? Yes.

Different teeth work together to break down food so it can travel through the body.

Doesn't have anything to do with taste.

So before we move on to looking at what the different jobs are that our teeth do, let's complete this task.

Task A, try eating the different types of food suggested below.

Observe which teeth you use and record your results in a table.

Here's an example of some teeth there.

The molars have been pointed out on this diagram.

Here's the canines, and finally the incisors.

Think about what those three different teeth do, and then use a table like this to fill it out and decide what they do.

Try a hard apple, a piece of banana and a crusty piece of bread.

Think about the teeth that you use to eat it and describe the teeth that are being used.

What do they do as you eat it.

If you're not too comfortable eating some of those items, make sure you work with somebody who is so that you get a good idea.

Or you can discuss with an adult what other food you could use.

Best of luck with that task, restart when you've done that.

Now your table of results could look something like this.

The hard apple needs some incisors to bite, and molars to chew.

Ah.

So the apple is bitten into using incisors at the front and then the food is past to the back of the mouth for the molars to chew it and mash it all up.

The incisors are sharp and flat and the molars are wide and bumpy.

The piece of banana there is used by the incisors to bite and the molars to chew again.

Again, the banana is bitten at front and passed at the back of the mouth.

The crusty bread, however, was bitten into with the canines here.

So bitten and torn into.

They're sharp and pointed, aren't they? So the canines in this case, were biting into the bread and ripping it apart.

Hmm.

Let's see if we can discover more about the types of jobs that our teeth do using some of that scientific data we've got.

So the next part of our lesson is called different teeth have different functions.

Sofia and Alex ate different types of food to find out more about the functions of their teeth, just like you have.

Alex says, "I use different types of teeth to break down different types of food." And Sofia says, "I've learned that different teeth are different shapes because they have different functions when we eat." I wonder what you found out from your scientific data.

Take a quick moment to pause and discuss what you found.

Did you find the same as the children here? Let's move on and see what else.

Incisors are very sharp and flat.

Their function is to cut and bite into food.

Alex says, "I use my incisors to bite into a hard apple." Here he is an example of someone doing that.

Oh yeah, the incisors are at the front there.

You need to really bite into the front of it there to make sure that you bite off a chunk.

Incisors get their name from the Latin word to cut.

That's what it means.

Also, it looks very similar to the word scissors, doesn't it? Canines are sharp and more pointed.

Their function is to rip and tear food.

Just like Alex says here.

"I use my canines to tear a piece of bread from the crusty baguette." Yeah, when you put in some crusty bread, you need to bite it into the side.

Your canines here are sharp and pointed.

Little bit like a dog's teeth as well.

A dog is also known as a canine.

Canine teeth in humans are named after a dog's fangs.

They use for ripping and tearing food.

Some people might have slightly longer fangs in their mouth than others.

Mine aren't very big at all.

Molars are wide and bumpy, and their function is to chew and grind food.

Alex says that he uses molars when chewing and grinding a piece of banana.

Molars get their name from the Latin word mola, which means millstone.

It's a big flat stone used for grinding up grain.

Little bit like your fists as well, isn't it? You get your fists and put them together like this.

This is a bit like what your molars do in your mouth.

They move together and they grind things up, don't they? You could have a little practise with some sharpening or maybe some soil to see how things are ground up.

Let's stop and think.

Name that tooth.

This tooth is sharp and more pointed.

So it's used to rip and tear food.

Is it the molar, the canine, or the incisor? The answer here is the canine.

It's very sharp and pointy.

It's used to rip and tear food.

Name that tooth.

This tooth is wide and bumpy, and so it's used to chew and grind food.

Is it the molar, the canine, or the incisor? The answer here is molar.

It's wide and bumpy, and grinds the food up.

Name that tooth.

This tooth is sharp and flat, and so it's used to cut and bite food.

Is it the molar, the canine, or the incisor? The answer here is incisor.

It's used to cut and bite food.

So here's the final task of the lesson.

You need to think about which everyday objects you could use to explain, or demonstrate the functions of different types of teeth.

You could look around your school or home to find objects that are used for cutting, ripping, and tearing and grinding.

Be very careful here though.

You shouldn't be touching sharp objects by yourself.

Always check with an adult first.

So which objects would represent which teeth and why? Get going with that task and restart the video when you've done that.

Good luck.

So which objects did you use to represent your teeth and why? Alex says, "I chose a chisel for an incisor because it's flat and sharp for cutting.

I used a fingernail for a canine because it's pointed for tearing, and the end of a rolling pin for a molar because it's wide and flat for crushing and squashing." Sofia says, "I chose a flat butter knife for an incisor, sharp scissors for a canine, and a flat round pebble for a molar." I think each of these objects does the same thing that different teeth do to our food when we eat.

Your examples might have been a little bit different, whatever they were, I'm sure they were very similar to the types of jobs that teeth do as well.

Well done for that task.

Good exploring.

Some of your suggestions here may have been slightly different to what the children chose, but don't worry that's okay.

I'm sure Whatever they were, they were exactly the types of things that you could use to pretend to be teeth.

Let's summarise our lesson.

Different types of teeth have different functions, but work together to prepare food to travel through the digestive system.

Remember, the teeth are the first part of the digestive teeth system, aren't they? Incisors are sharp and flat and they're used to cut and bite food.

Canines are sharp and pointed, and they're used to rip and tear food.

Molars are wide and bumpy, and they're used to chew and grind food.

Well, whatever you've understood out of this lesson, I hope that you've got a better understanding of what your teeth need to do.

That means that you need to take really good care of your teeth.

If you don't, you are not going to be able to chew, or bite, or rip food in the same way.

That means it might go down slightly differently and take longer to digest.

It's very important to look after your teeth, and hopefully you've got a good understanding as to why and the different functions that your teeth do for your digestive system.

I am Mr. Wilshire, thank you very much for listening.