Human Digestive System Lesson with Stomach Model

Today, The Homeschool Scientist and I dive deep into the bowels of Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology as we study the digestive system with our children.

Lesson 4, Day One

Our morning started with breakfast and the Make Me Genius – Digestive System video. While I love the details of these videos, my children did giggle about the difference in our accent to those in the movie. Yeah, we are REAL southern but the situation made for a great mini-lesson on how God made us all different and how people around the world have different dialects.

As we watched the video, the children colored a poster detailing the digestive system from Easy Make & Learn Projects: Human Body. I bought this book last year after seeing the human body lessons at Spell Outloud. (Yes, you really need to go thank her for all the inspiration she has given me and check out the detailed studies and resources she has available.)

Another goodie I picked up from the pages of Easy Make & Learn Projects: Human Body was a digestion investigation.

Digestive System Science Project

To represent the esophagus, I used two toilet paper rolls and covered them with the printable included in the book. Then, we added water to a zip-top bag, which we pretended was the acid in our stomach. After taping the bag to the tube with packaging tape, the children were able to pass the “stomach” around and drop pieces of bread down the “esophagus.”

The children took turns stimulating the muscles of the stomach churning the acid and food until it became liquid. When Ruble almost flipped the bag, I said, “Oops. Be careful. We don’t want to make our stomach throw up!” The children roared. Seriously, the gross-factor in this lesson made it a HIT.

I cannot tell you how much fun they had. Their delight gave me so much encouragement as a weary homeschool mom after a rough week. When Ariary jumped in and began imitating her brothers and sister by squeezing the bag and laughing, I was reminded that homeschooling is God’s perfect plan for our family.

Lesson 4, Day Two

For our second day of the study, we flipped through the text and worked in the Junior Notebooking Journal for Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology. Mario and Princess Peach received their digestive systems too.

Since my children can be resistant to brushing their teeth, I jumped at the opportunity to talk about dental health. After watching a video that explains teeth and what they do, we watched the following video featuring our favorite puppet, Elmo.

A video is embeded.

Since we successfully got our groove on, we marched to the bathroom for a tooth-brushing session. I told them about bad breath and tooth decay and reminded the children to even brush the back teeth, not just the ones they can see.

Later, for a review, Lira played The Virtual Body – Organize Your Organs game. Lots of other fun there. Check it out.

Remember to swing by The Homeschool Scientist to see their family’s approach to studying the digestive system.