Body Systems Explorer

It was Science Week at the farm school, and Little Thunder had a giant poster of the human body.

"Today," he announced, "we're going on a tour of the inside of a person."

Suzy tilted her head. "How do we get inside?"

"With imagination," said Spike, pretending to shrink down to the size of a crumb.

They began with a sandwich. "First stop: the mouth," said Little Thunder. "Teeth chop, saliva softens. Then it slides down the oesophagus into the stomach, where it gets churned up."

"Then the small intestine takes out the good stuff," added Suzy, "and the large intestine soaks up water. That's the digestive system."

Next they followed a breath. Air rushed in through the nose, down the windpipe and into two spongy lungs. "Oxygen goes into the blood," Spike explained, "and carbon dioxide comes out when you breathe out. That's the respiratory system."

Then they rode a drop of blood. The heart squeezed — thump, thump — pushing it through arteries all the way to the toes and back through veins. "The circulatory system," said Little Thunder. "A delivery truck that never stops."

"Who's the boss of it all?" asked Suzy.

"The brain," said Spike. "It sends messages along nerves, faster than a kelpie on a muster."

Back in the classroom, they wrote a list of ways to keep a body working well: sleep, play outside, drink water, eat vegies, and wear a hat and sunscreen.

Little Thunder tapped the poster. "Bodies are teamwork," he said. "Just like us."