The Digestive Journey
Trace the journey of food through the digestive system: food enters the mouth where teeth break it down and saliva begins digestion, travels down the oesophagus to the stomach, passes through the small intestine where nutrients are absorbed, and waste moves through the large intestine
What a learner can do afterwards
- List the organs in order: mouth, oesophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine
- Describe what happens at each stage (teeth chew, stomach churns with acid, small intestine absorbs nutrients)
- State that the small intestine is where most nutrients pass into the blood, and the large intestine removes water from waste
The lesson
When you eat, your food does not just disappear. It travels through a long path inside your body called the digestive system. Each stop along the way has its own job to do.
In your mouth, your teeth chew the food into small pieces, and your saliva starts to soften it. The food then slides down a tube called the oesophagus into your stomach. Your stomach churns the food and mixes it with acid until it becomes a soft, thick liquid.
Mia eats an apple. Her teeth chew it into tiny bits, and her saliva wets it. The bits slide down her oesophagus into her stomach, where they get churned with acid. Next the mushy food moves into her small intestine, where nutrients pass into her blood. What is left moves into her large intestine, where water is taken out before the waste leaves her body.
Two stops do the most important jobs: the small intestine absorbs the nutrients your body needs, and the large intestine removes water from what is left over.
Food travels in order through the mouth, oesophagus, stomach, small intestine, and large intestine, with each stop doing its own job.
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Where it sits
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Where this leads
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8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.