Materials: brown paper bag, two straws, a paper towel roll, three Ziplock baggies, construction paper (red, orange, pink, yellow, brown), tape, scissors
- Draw (just the outline) a heart (image below) on red paper, liver (image below) on orange, large intestine (image below) on pink, and the small intestine (image below) on yellow (you can also cut a yellow rectangle to fit inside of the large intestine and add squiggly lines to look like the small intestines).
- Have your child cut out each internal organ independently. Discuss the (simplified) function of each organ (i.e. the heart pumps blood through our bodies, the liver filters out toxins from our liquids, the intestines take out the vitamins and nutrients from our food and eliminates any waste).
- Open a Ziplock bag in the center of the zipper, just wide enough to fit one straw. Wrap the extra zipper portion around the straw and tape it together. Repeat this with the second bag and straw. Have your child experiment with inflating and deflating the “lungs” by pushing air through the straw and into the lungs to inflate then inhaling the air back into their mouths to deflate the lungs. Explain that this is what happens when we breathe in and out of our noses/mouths; air travels down our windpipe (straws) and into our lungs (bags), breathing in oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide. *This is a great time to make the connection of where oxygen comes from; trees.*
- Take the paper towel roll (esophagus – how our food gets from our mouth to our stomachs) and tape the remaining Ziplock bag to the bottom of the roll (open) to represent the stomach. Then tear pieces of brown paper to represent food that will be “eaten” later.
- Take the brown bag, cut off a rectangle on the bottom so that the bag could be worn like a shirt, leaving straps to hold it up, and arm holes on the sides (check that it fits over your child before continuing).
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- Lay the bag flat and tape the esophagus on the top/middle of the bag.
- Tape the lungs to either side of the paper towel roll with the straw ends meeting in the top/middle.
- Tape the large intestine below the stomach with the end reaching the bottom of the bag.
- Tape the small intestine inside the large intestine.
- Tape the liver on the top, left portion of the intestine.
- Tape the heart to the right side of the esophagus.
- Place the bag over the child’s torso, placing the straps over their shoulders to hold it up.
- Have your child experiment with the functions (lungs and eating) and discuss what happens to the food from beginning to end.
- Enjoy!