This afternoon, our class learnt all about the digestive system.

To help the children understand how it works, we created our own hands-on model and followed each stage of digestion step by step.

We began by placing half a banana and a Weetabix into a bowl to represent the mouth. Using a spatula as our “teeth,” the children broke the food into smaller pieces. We added water to act as saliva and continued mashing the mixture, just as our teeth and saliva do in real life.

Next, we transferred the food into a small plastic bag to represent the oesophagus. The children gently squeezed the bag to mimic the muscular movements that push food down through this tube.

From there, we moved the mixture into a larger bag to model the stomach. We added coloured water to represent stomach acid, which helps break food down even further. The children then “squeezed” the stomach to show how it churns and mixes food. At this stage, we also talked about how enzymes from other organs—such as the liver—enter to support digestion.

After that, we used tights to represent the intestines. We added green and red coloured water to act as bile and pancreatic juices. As the children squeezed the tights, they noticed the liquid passing through—demonstrating how nutrients move out of the small intestine and into the bloodstream. Any remaining, undigested material continues its journey and is eventually passed out of the body as waste.

The children thoroughly enjoyed creating this model and exploring each part of the digestive process in such an interactive way. We hope they can now explain the journey of food through the body with confidence at home!