Name _____________

Date _____________
Digestive System
Stomach & Intestines
Digestive System

The digestive system breaks down food, separating useful nutrients from waste material. Nutrients like
proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and water are used by the body for energy, growth, and cell
repair. Think of the digestive system as a long twisting hollow tube from the mouth to anus. The digestive
organs include the mouth, esophagus, stomach, intestines, and anus. Solid organs like the liver, pancreas, and
gallbladder are also part of the system.

Food breakdown starts in the mouth with chewing, squeezing, and mixing of saliva. Food then travels to the
stomach where strong acids break it into smaller particles. The useful nurtients move throughout the body,
while the waste material (feces) collects in the intestines and eventually squeezed out the body by muscles.

The entire digestive system is about 9 meters long and covers 30 m². The system contains trillions of microbes
to protect the body from dangerous food bacteria and help with food breakdown. It takes food about two
hours to breakdown in the stomach and another 12-50 hours for waste to move out the body. In the past,
animal intestines were used for guitar strings, tennis racquets, and sausage casings.

Directions
Directions::
Use
Use Wikipedia
Wikipedia to
Salivary gland find each organ’s
“Human
function.
DigestiveWrite
Esophagus
the answer
System” to
below
find each term.
the
organ’s
Tip: The website
Liver
function.
uses many large
Stomach medical terms, so
Write the
keep it simple. Look
answer below
only for the organ’s
the term.
basic purpose.

Pancreas

Gall bladder

Small intestine

Large intestine
Rectum

Sources: National Institute of Health; Wikipedia TpT | The Harstad Collection

The digestive system breaks down food, separating useful nutrients from waste material. Nutrients like
proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and water are used by the body for energy, growth, and cell
repair. Think of the digestive system as a long twisting hollow tube from the mouth to anus. The digestive
organs include the mouth, esophagus, stomach, intestines, and anus. Solid organs like the liver, pancreas, and
gallbladder are also part of the system.

Food breakdown starts in the mouth with chewing, squeezing, and mixing of saliva. Food then travels to the
stomach where strong acids break it into smaller particles. The useful nurtients move throughout the body,
while the waste material (feces) collects in the intestines and eventually squeezed out the body by muscles.

The entire digestive system is about 9 meters long and covers 30 m². The system contains trillions of microbes
to protect the body from dangerous food bacteria and help with food breakdown. It takes food about two
hours to breakdown in the stomach and another 12-50 hours for waste to move out the body. In the past,
animal intestines were used for guitar strings, tennis racquets, and sausage casings.

Directions:
Directio
ns:
Use Wikipedia to
Salivary gland find each organ’s
Use
function. Write
Produces saliva that starts Esophagus Wikipedi
the answer
chemical digestion. a
Hollow tube allowing food
below the term.
“Human
to travel to stomach. Tip: The Digestiv
website
Liver uses manye large
Produces body Stomach medical terms, so
System”
chemicals like bile; keep it simple. Look
helps break down Organ where chemicals to find
only for the organ’s
carbohydrates. and food mix for food each
basic purpose.
breakdown. organ’s
Pancreas
function.
Involved with blood sugar Write
Gall bladder control of body. the
Stores bile before it answer
Small intestine
is released into small
below
intestine; bile breaks Location where most chemical
the
down fats. digestion takes place.
term.
Large intestine
Rectum
Absorbs water and stores feces
before release. Feces storage; notifies brain it is
Sources: National Institute of Health; Wikipedia time to expel waste whenTpT
full.
| The Harstad Collection