Food for Thought

Provided Resources

• Teaching PowerPoint

Additional Resources (per group)

• Several pairs of old, clean tights with the legs cut off (one leg per group of 2-3 children)
• A small fruit, e.g. apple or tangerine
• A banana
• 2 cream crackers
• Scissors
• A plastic tub
• A teaspoon
• A sealable plastic food bag
• 2 paper cups (one with approx. 50ml orange juice in, and the other containing 50ml water)
• A foil tray
• A piece of kitchen paper

Teaching

• To understand that all living things depend on one another for nutrition.
• To investigate the parts and function of the digestive system through a practical demonstration.

Activities

1. Use everyday objects to demonstrate peristalsis and the other workings of the digestive system
2. Label and explain the function of the various parts of the digestive system
3. Create movement patterns to demonstrate the way peristalsis works in digestive tubes to move food along and the way the stomach can churn, stretch and contract to mix food with acid

Investigation
Introduce the concept of The Circle of Life and the outcome of a dance performance to share with an audience. All living things need nutrition and animals need to eat. Why? For energy. How do animals get energy from food? Learn the function of the digestive system through movement and games (classifying and identifying, problem solving)
Year 3- Arrange parts of the digestive system in correct sequence and label
Year 4 – Arrange parts in the correct sequence, label and annotate

Vocabulary
Digestion, digestive system, organ, saliva, peristalsis, oesophagus, stomach, acid, intestines, faeces