| Year 4
The children excitedly enjoyed discovering what happens to the food we eat after it disappears into the mouth. They learnt about the different stages the food goes through, in the body, before finally waste is expelled from the body. In addition to this our children were introduced to new vocabulary with words such as oesophagus, stomach, duodenum, small intestine, large intestine, enzymes, bile and gastric juices.
Each stage of the digestive system was demonstrated in the classroom. Firstly, we used real food (such as a banana and cracker), the food was torn and cut into several small pieces to represent the tearing and grinding action of the teeth. Next, water was added to represent saliva in the mouth. A plastic sandwich bag served as a stomach and the children enjoyed squishing it to represent its actions. In addition, orange juice was added to the stomach to represent gastric juices. Mr Grabham's favourite tights were then used to represent the intestines. The food was squeezed through the intestines. The children noticed that the tights became wet on the outside - this represented the nutrients being absorbed into the blood stream. The drier substance was left inside the tights. Eventually the mixture was transferred to a paper cup to represent the anus. A hole in the bottom of the cup allowed what was left of our original food to be expelled from our body as waste - to many squeals of delight from our children! The children certainly will remember this practical demonstration of the digestive system (and so will we)!!!