The Human Body: The Digestive System

We are using the Montessori Sixth Great Lesson analogy of The Great River (click the link and then choose "The Nation of the Great River - Narration and Music - by Lizby Dingus and Kai Engle" to hear ETC Montessori's version of this lovely story; choose "Teacher's Notes" to download the words as a PDF).

This story is a wonderful way to frame our work. In a Montessori Lower Elementary classroom students ages 6-9 would hear this story every year. It is part of the Peace & Cosmic Education subject of the curriculum.

This isn't as rich and hands-on as when I taught The Human Body as a summer camp in 2018, of course, because we are doing social distancing and meeting via Zoom. But you do the best you can with what you have!

With this "Flipped Classroom" approach, students are doing the "Prior to Meeting" activities at home with their families before we gather on Zoom.

Previous Sessions in this Science Club topic were:

• The Twelve Senses
• Teaching About ASL and Braille
• The Human Body: The Nervous System
• The Human Body: The Circulatory System
• The Human Body: The Muscular System
• The Human Body: The Skeletal System
• The Human Body: The Teeth

Friday, July 24

Prior to Meeting

Review of The Teeth
(The Department of Nutrition)

• coloring pages from Human Anatomy Coloring Book by Margaret Matt and Joe Ziemian

  "Mouth and Esophagus" on page 31

  

Introduction to The Digestive System

• Without looking it up, answer this question:
  "What are the parts of the Digestive System?"
• "How Does Food Move Through the Body?" on page 74 of Easy Genius Science Projects with the Human Body: Great Experiments and Ideas by Robert Gardner

  

• "Kitchen Chemistry: Test for Fat" on page 79 of Blood and Guts: A Working Guide to Your Own Insides by Linda Allison

  

• "Make Your Own Nutrition Balance" on page 34 of The Human Body: 25 Fantastic Projects Illuminate How the Body Works by Kathleen Reilly

  

During the Meeting

• review the results of student at-home activities
• read the chapter "Digestion: Down the Food Tube" from Blood and Guts, stopping as follows:

  

  at the bottom of page 81, hold up a soup can and a thimble

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