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Body Lab 3-5 / Week 06 / Monday
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Week 06 · Digestion

Monday

It starts in the mouth
// Food's long trip, powered by the Sun
⏱ about 15 min

Monday: It Starts in the Mouth

Rocket sniffs the air. Someone is baking bread in the kitchen. "My mouth is watering!" he says.

Raven laughs. "What do you notice? You have not even taken a bite yet."

Nova hovers by the kitchen door. "Your body gets ready for food early," she says. "Think about what that water in your mouth is for."

Rocket wonders. Could digestion start before eating?

What is digestion?

Digestion is how your body breaks food into tiny parts it can use.

Those parts give you nutrients and energy.

Digestion can start before you take a bite!

When you smell, see or think about tasty food, your mouth makes saliva.

Saliva is another word for spit.

Teeth, tongue and saliva

Your teeth chew food into smaller pieces.

Saliva begins to break food down. It makes food mushy and easy to swallow.

Your tongue pushes the food around while you chew.

Then your tongue pushes a small ball of mushed food to your throat.

That small ball has a funny name: a bolus (BO-luss).

Mouth partIts job
TeethChew food into smaller pieces
SalivaMakes food mushy and starts breaking it down
TonguePushes food around, then pushes it to the throat
MOUTH CHECK
  • Read the question.
  • Tap your answer.
What is another word for saliva?
What do your teeth do?
When can digestion start?
StatementTrue or false?
Saliva makes food mushy and easy to swallow.?
Your tongue helps push food to your throat.?
Digestion breaks food into parts the body can use.?
Chewing makes food pieces bigger.?
WHY THIS EXERCISEChewing makes food pieces smaller, and saliva makes them mushy.
What is the small ball of chewed food called? Type one word.
WHY THIS EXERCISEA bolus is the small ball of mushed food you swallow.
Try it
Look at a picture of a tasty food, like a ripe banana or warm bread.
Close your eyes and imagine its smell. Do not eat anything.
Does your mouth start to feel a little wetter?
Breaking food into tiny useful parts is called ____.
Your ____ chew food into small pieces.
Your ____ pushes food to the back of your throat.
A BITE OF APPLE IN THE MOUTH
  • ?Your teeth chew the apple into small pieces.
  • ?You smell the apple and saliva starts to flow.
  • ?Your tongue pushes the food around while you chew.
  • ?Saliva makes the pieces mushy.
  • ?Your tongue pushes the bolus to your throat.
WHY THIS EXERCISEDigestion starts with smell, then chewing, mixing with saliva and swallowing.

Great start, digestion detective! Tomorrow we follow the bolus down a stretchy tube.