Digestion Song

To the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb

First the food goes in your mouth
Crunch crunch crunch
Munch munch munch
Saliva helps the food go down
Into the esophagus

The food gets churned up in the tum
With gastric juice
Acid juice
Then the mixture that's called chyme
Goes into the duodenum

Bile comes from the liver to
Break down fat
Break down fat
More juice from the pancreas
Breaks carbs, protein, and more fat

The small intestine takes the stuff
Nutritious stuff
Through its walls
All the good stuff through its walls
Into the blood for you

The waste gets dried out in the large
Intestine
Then it goes
Through the colon, rectum, anus
And that is the end!

Enjoy :-)

Bible Crafts

We have been reading about Ruth of the Bible, and I wanted to share the craft the girls and I did yesterday. The story deals a lot with Ruth's gleaning of barley from Boaz's fields, so we made barley stalks out of yellow construction paper.
1. Cut paper into 1-inch strips.
2. Cut a 12-inch long strip for the stalk.
3. Cut several pieces about 2 to 3 inches long for the heads (Honestly, I don't know my barley terminology, so I'm not sure if "heads" is the right word.)
4. Glue the heads as shown.



Yesterday in Sunday school we came up with an impromptu craft for our Jonah lesson. I don't have any examples to show, but will try to explain how it looks.
1. Draw a figure of a person in the center of a paper plate (on the "food side"). This is Jonah.
2. Fold a paper plate in half. The plate is the fish.
3. In one corner of the folded plate, near the folded edge, draw an eye on either side of the fold.
4. Cut construction paper into small triangles.
5. Glue one triangle on each side of the fish, in the middle of the body (these are dorsal fins).
6. Glue one triangle on each side of the fish, at the tail end of the body (these are the tail fins.

I suppose you could turn this into a biology lesson and draw the fish's internal organs around Jonah. That probably would have been too much for the 4-year-olds in my class.

A School With No Home

I had had it. Steve had had it. Sure, we have three young children, but that's no reason for our home to look like a disaster area. So this past Saturday was cleaning day. It was actually Steve's idea. "Why don't we clean this weekend?" might be one of the most romantic things he's ever said to me. My biggest grievances were the carpets that hadn't been vacuumed in who knows how long. For Steve, it was the dining room table, aka school. Oh. I hadn't realized that our table covered with books, notebooks, construction paper, and glitter was such a source of consternation for my dear sweet husband. Not that I'm immune to clutter. And I rather love organization. Some women relax at a spa, or by taking long walks. I go to The Container Store. But for some reason, the crazy and chaotic dining room table did not bother me. For one thing, I could work there with my laptop while the kids did crafts or homework. And I liked having everything (quite literally, almost everything) right there when it was time to have a lesson. It did bother me a little that I could never find a book or worksheet when I needed it, but that was our school. I don't have a before picture, but here is the after.

As you can see, all that remains of our school is the schedule taped to the wall. Steve is delighted. And so, I have to find another place for school. This morning, the girls and I made "puzzle pies" on the smaller kitchen table. I took out everything we needed, which was on one side of the kitchen, then put it all back when we were done. What fun is that? But Steve does like seeing the dining table. Perhaps it's time for me to set up a real school area with a table and small chairs, cubbies and bins. Oooh, I'm getting excited now. Time to go to The Container Store!