Have you ever made poop?  Our second grade class did!  We recreated the digestive path food takes from the first step to the last.  We had two rows and each student had a different part in the process.

First, the molars which rip up the food.  We ripped up newspaper into small bits just as our teeth do.

Next, we added saliva to begin the chemical digestion of the food.  Basically we sprayed the newspaper with water.

Then it was time for the esophagus to do its part.  We squeezed the newspaper repeatedly as the pancreas does to move the food down to the stomach.

A  great deal of the digestive process takes place in the stomach.  Our food is in the stomach longer that any other part of the digestive system.  Using stomach acid (in our case, water), we worked the newspaper with our stomach muscles (hands) until it was soft enough to go through to the small intestines.

In the small intestines, we passed the nutrients (Skittles) into our blood stream to be distributed throughout our body.  Everyone enjoyed the Skittles as long as they didn’t think about where they just came from!

The large intestine absorbs all the excess water so there is only waste matter left (poop shaped newspaper).  We used sponges to absorb the liquid.  It took quite a lot of effort.

Finally, the rectum!  this is where and how waste is removed from our body.  We squeezed it out of the rectum (hands) into a dishpan (toilet).  Yes, everyone does it!