Montessori Biology
Digestive System Worksheets for Elementary Students
Quick facts about the digestive system, plus free printable and online worksheets for elementary students
The worksheets you’ll find in the following sections are “live worksheets” — they can be answered right on this page, with a button that lets you find out your score or email your answers to your teacher. You can also get printable (PDF) versions of all the worksheets on this page here:
- The Digestive System: Easy Labeling Worksheet for Kindergarten and Grade 1
- How the Digestive System Works: Worksheet for Grade 2
- Parts of the Digestive System: Cut and Paste Labeling Worksheet for Grade 3
- How the Digestive System is Interconnected with Other Organ Systems: Worksheet for Grade 4
- Anatomy of the Digestive System: Diagram Labeling Worksheet for Grade 5
- Digestive System Review: Worksheet for Grade 6
We need food for two reasons:
- Food gives our cells the energy they need to do their jobs, whether that’s moving, thinking, breathing, or any other thing it needs to do.
- Food also supplies the materials that our bodies are made of, such as proteins and fat. (We are literally what we eat.)
However, food is made up of large, complex chemicals that our cells can’t absorb directly. It needs to be broken down into small chemicals that can be absorbed into our blood, which then carries and distributes it to the individual cells of our body.
This is where our digestive system comes in.
The Digestive System
Your digestive system is basically one long tube plus a few accessory organs that release “juices” into the tube.
The tube is called the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, also called the digestive tract or the alimentary tract/canal.
GI tract :
- mouth
- esophagus
- stomach
- small intestine
- large intestine (includes the rectum and anus)
Accessory organs:
- salivary glands
- liver
- gall bladder
- pancreas
Digestion
The process of digestion begins in the mouth and, after the food goes down the esophagus, continues in the stomach. However, most of the work of digestion takes place in the small intestine. The large intestine deals with the remaining parts of the food that can’t absorbed.
Mechanical digestion, also known as physical digestion, is the process of physically breaking down the food we eat into smaller and smaller pieces. This happens in the mouth when our teeth chews on our food. It also happens in the stomach, where the churning action of the stomach — pushing food forward, grinding it, pushing it back to repeat the process, and so on — eventually makes the food particles small enough to pass into the passageway to the small intestine.
Chemical digestion is the process of changing the actual chemical structure of the food particles and turning it into a form that can be absorbed into our blood, for distribution to all the cells of the body. This process can involve several steps that take place in different parts of the GI tract.
There are lots of “juices” in the digestive system that are in charge of chemical digestion, several kinds for each type of food (fat, carbohydrates, proteins). One example is the acid in our stomachs, which begins the process of chemically digesting proteins.
If you’re fond of big words, here’s what is produced at the very end of digestion:
- Carbohydrates (like starch and table sugar) are turned into monosaccharides;
- Fats are turned into fatty acids and monoacylglycerol; and
- Proteins are turned into amino acids and oligopeptides.
In these final forms, they can now be absorbed into our body.
Some types of food take longer to digest than others, but generally it takes 1-3 days for the food we eat to make the entire journey from our mouth to…well, you know.
Ready to test your knowledge of the digestive system?
Answer our fun worksheets below!
Worksheets
The worksheets below are interactive “live worksheets” — they can be answered and corrected/submitted right on this page.
Printable (PDF) versions of these worksheets are also available for free download — just click on links provided before each worksheet.
Note on the Worksheets
You can reduce the size of the worksheet by zooming out your browser screen. For Windows users, scroll down the mouse wheel while pressing the Ctrl key in your keyboard. If there are any errors/glitches, just refresh and try again.
The Digestive System: Easy Labeling Worksheet for Kindergarten and Grade 1
A printable version of this worksheet can be downloaded for free here: HuntersWoodsPH Digestive System Labeling Worksheet for Kindergarten and Grade 1 (PDF)
liveworksheets.com
How the Digestive System Works: Worksheet for Grade 2
A printable version of this worksheet can be downloaded for free here: HuntersWoodsPH How the Digestive System Works for Grade 2 (PDF)
liveworksheets.com
Parts of the Digestive System: Labeling Worksheet for Grade 3
A printable version of this worksheet can be downloaded for free here: HuntersWoodsPH Parts of the Digestive System Cut and Paste Labeling Worksheet for Grade 3
liveworksheets.com
How the Digestive System is Interconnected with Other Organ Systems: Worksheet for Grade 4
A printable version of this worksheet can be downloaded for free here: HuntersWoodsPH How the Digestive System is Interconnected with Other Organ Systems Worksheet for Grade 4 (PDF)
liveworksheets.com
Anatomy of the Digestive System: Diagram Labeling Worksheet for Grade 5
A printable version of this worksheet can be downloaded for free here: HuntersWoodsPH Anatomy of the Digestive System Labeling Worksheet for Grade 5 (PDF)
liveworksheets.com
Digestive System Review: Worksheet for Grade 6
A printable version of this worksheet can be downloaded for free here: HuntersWoodsPH Digestive System Review Worksheet for Grade 6 (PDF)
liveworksheets.com