Digestion! The Journey of Food from Mouth to Poo!

What an afternoon we had yesterday! Some of it was fun, other bits were not so pleasant! We have been learning about digestion.

Before the holiday, we began by thinking about the different jobs our teeth do. We know that our incisors bite and cut the food  like scissors, our canines pierce food and our molars grind it into small pieces so we can swallow it. We reminded ourselves of these key facts by eating some celery and carrot. (For some of us, the celery was the most disgusting part of the topic!)

Yesterday, the real fun started! We followed the journey of a banana sandwich, a bowl of porridge, a cup of coffee and a Mars bar as it moved through the digestive system!

We used scissors to be our incisors.

We used a potato masher to be our molars. Did you know that the saliva in our mouths contains the enzyme amylase. This breaks down carbohydrates.

 Next stop, the stomach via the oesophagus! In the stomach, an enzyme called protease breaks down the protein.

 We all had a go at being the muscles in the stomach!

Not a great picture but these are the nutrients that were absorbed into the body when the food arrived in the small intestine.

The water is absorbed back into the body in the large intestine.

And finally, we do a poo!