Lesson Plan:

All About the Digestive System

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Grade
Fourth Grade
Subject
Science

Materials and Preparation

Digestive System worksheet

What Is Digestion? worksheet

Human Digestion worksheet

What Happens When You Eat? worksheet

Writing journals or writing paper

Attachments

PDF
Digestive System


PDF
What Is Digestion?

PDF
Human Digestion

PDF
What Happens When You Eat?

September 19, 2015

by Sanayya Sohail

Learning Objectives
Students will be able to identify the various parts of the digestive system. Students will be able to
identify the function of the various parts of the digestive system.

Lesson
Introduction (5 minutes)
Tell your students that today they will be learning about the digestive system.
 Explain that the digestive system consists of various parts that enables food to enter your
stomach, be absorbed and distributed, and be released from your body in the form of waste.

Explicit Instruction/Teacher Modeling (40 minutes)

Go over the Digestive System worksheet with your students.

Explain each part using the blurb on the side of the worksheet and come up with some
examples to help clarify.

An example for the esophagus: Explain to your students that the esophagus carries food
from the throat to the stomach. Tell your students that chewing something large makes you cough
because it gets stuck in your esophagus. Explain to your students that problems with the
esophagus can lead to heartburn, chest pain and difficulty swallowing.

Guided Practice/Interactive Modeling (15 minutes)

Ask your students to complete the What Is Digestion? worksheet with a partner.

Go over the worksheet as a class.

Independent Working Time (25 minutes)

Ask your students to complete the Human Digestion worksheet.

Go over the worksheet with your students as a class.

Extend
Differentiation
Enrichment: Ask your students to pick a part of the digestive system. Have them
research the structure and functions of the part. Ask your students to research the diseases
associated with damage to that part. Have your students to write a four paragraph essay
explaining their research findings.

Support: Explain the process of what happens when you eat a piece of food using a
specific example. Give a piece of this food item to your students. Have them eat it while you
explain what is happening to the piece of food that they are eating. For example, tell your
students that their teeth is grinding the food in their mouths. After the food is broken down, it
will go through the esophagus. Point to the esophagus and ask your students if they feel the food
there. Explain that the food item they ate will go to the stomach after it leaves the esophagus.
Explain to your students that the food is broken down in the stomach and goes through the small
 intestine after it leaves the stomach. Tell your students that the energy they get from the food is
because the blood picks it up from the small intestine and delivers it to the cells. Explain that the
leftover food goes to the large intestine and the large intestine enables it to the exit the body.

Review
Assessment (10 minutes)
Ask your students to complete the What Happens When You Eat? worksheet.

Review and Closing (30 minutes)

Divide your students into groups of four.

Ask them to write a song or a poem that uses at least four parts of the digestive system as
a group.

Ask each group to read their poem or sing their song out loud to the class.