Our Digestive System

We started reviewing what we know about the Human Body as well as learned new things. Today we learned all about the Digestive System. We talked about the yummy food they ate for lunch and how it was being broken down in their bodies.

           First grade learned:

• Digestion starts in the mouth
• Your teeth breaks down the food into pieces so that it can be swallowed
• Saliva covers the food to make it easier to swallow
• You have two pipes in your throat...one for eating, the other for breathing and that a special flap covers your air pipe when you swallow food.
• The food travels down the esophagus and gets squeezed by the the muscles
• Food then goes to the stomach where it's broken down by the gastric juices. The stomach stores food, break down the food into a liquid mixture then passes to the small intestine
• Small intestine breaks down food even more so the body can absorb the nutrients and vitamins it needs into the blood.
• Next stop for the things that your body doesn't need in the large intestine, which we learned is about 5 ft long)
• Finally the waste is emptied out of our body

We discussed how important it is to be able to use the bathroom and get rid of the things our body does not need. We learned there is a special bracha you can say after using the bathroom to thank Hashem for allowing your body to work properly. Shimon did a great job in reciting it!