Healthcare workers

• Make sure that you've visited www.LEGOeducation/start and watched the My XL World onboarding videos.
• Watch the video in the top right corner of this page to get an overview of this lesson.
• Select the inspiration cards you'll need for the lesson.
• Set up a designated space in your classroom that will allow the children to easily build and role-play with their models.

Show the children the inspiration card of the dentist's office, and read this short story aloud.

This is Uma’s dental office. Uma is going to look at Xavier’s teeth to make sure they're healthy and strong. Victor is waiting for his check-up. Yasmin is with him. Victor might be a little nervous. He has a tooth that hurts. Yasmin is telling him a funny story, so Victor feels less scared.

Facilitate a quick discussion about dentists. Ask questions, like:

• Why do we need to go to the dentist?
• What do you usually see in a dentist's office?

Tell the children that they're going to build a dentist's office.
Have them work in pairs to build models for the dentist's office. It should include chairs for the patients and the dentist, a play area with books and toys for children, and a waiting area with a bench or chairs and magazines.
They can use their imaginations to create new models or use the inspiration cards for guidance.
Once everyone has finished building, arrange the models to form a big dentist's office.

Gather the children together and ask them to add the LEGO^® DUPLO^® figures to the dentist's office.
Ask the children to think about what they've built.
Facilitate a discussion by asking guiding questions, like:

• What do dentists do?
• Why do people sometimes have toothaches?
• How can we make sure that we have healthy teeth?
• Can anyone demonstrate the proper way to brush your teeth?

Talk with the children about different tools (e.g., toothbrush, toothpaste, otoscope, needles) that dentists or doctors use to help their patients or suggest their patients to help themselves stay healthy.

Encourage each child to build one of these tools. Have them role-play that they're dentists or doctors who are going to use the tools to examine or help the LEGO^® DUPLO^® figures.

Evaluate the children’s skills development by observing if they’re:

• Discussing, asking questions, and expressing fears about visiting the doctor, clinic, hospital, or dentist; or getting shots or taking medicine
• Adding their own ideas to creative projects and coming up with their own ideas during play
• Expressing ideas verbally and describing familiar people, places, things, and events

Simplify this lesson by:

• Assigning each pair of children one model to build
• Running the lesson with a smaller group (i.e., 3-4 children) and providing more support with building

Increase the difficulty by:

• Encouraging the children to create more child-friendly tools for dentists or doctors

LANGUAGE ARTS EXTENSION
Option 1:
Show the inspiration card of the hospital, and encourage the children to design a children’s hospital and draw it on a piece of paper.
Ask guiding questions, like these, to help them as they build:

• What do you think the hospital should look like?
• What should be inside the hospital?
• How should the doctors and nurses dress?

Option 2:
Have the children use LEGO^® DUPLO^® bricks to build the hospital they've drawn.

MATH EXTENSION
Ask the children to draw a mouth that includes all of their teeth. Tell them to count how many teeth they have in their mouth, and how many teeth they've lost.