Weekly Newsletter
Investigations in Science 7
January 17, 2020
Announcements...
​ What We Did This Week…
Next Friday is the end of quarter 2. My
gradebook will be closing on Wednesday so
please have your child check on any missing
work and have them turn it in no later than
Wednesday. We will be continuing this unit into
February so please do NOT have your child
clean out their science section yet.
This is the time of year that many students start
running low on supplies. Check in with your
child to see if they need any more pencils,
paper, a new binder, etc.
Ask Your Child…
​ I’m sure you can imagine some of the questions with
● Are you running low on any of your
school supplies?
● What changes did you notice with the
Saltine cracker when you held it in your
mouth for 5 minutes?
Upcoming...
​ through, model the muscles that are in our
Topics:
● Digestive System
This week, we began learning about the digestive
system. The digestive system has three important
functions: break down food into molecules the body
can use, absorb nutrient molecules into the blood,
and eliminate waste products from the body. We
went through the entire process from the mouth,
esophagus, stomach, small intestine, (liver and
pancreas), large intestine, rectum and anus. I
modeled the length of the esophagus, stomach, small
intestine and large intestine using string. The small
intestine really isn’t small at all. It is about 7 meters
long but width wise it is much smaller than the large
intestine. We talked about what happens in the
intestines with diarrhea and constipation. There were
also lots of other great questions and discussions.
a room full of 7​th​ graders.
Then, we focused on the mouth and esophagus. We
started by putting a Saltine cracker in our mouth
(carbohydrate) for 5 LONG minutes. The starches in
the carbohydrate break down into glucose molecules
so if the students have acute taste buds, they should
notice the Saltine cracker changing from a salty taste
to a sweet taste. There are enzymes found in our
saliva that start this process. Then the students
modeled the esophagus by trying to push a bead
through a straw. Their fingers pushing the bead
esophagus that go through peristalsis to push our
food to our stomach. There will be 3 different
miniquizzes as we learn about the digestive system.
 ● Nervous System
Dates:
● January 20 - No School
● January 24 - Early Release/ End of Quarter 2
● January 24 - Winter Social
● January 27 - Professional Day/Possible
Instructional Day
● February 11 - PTA Meeting at 7:00 pm
● February 17 - No School
● February 28 - Early Release
● March 10 - PTA Meeting at 7:00 pm
● March 23-25 - Bay Trip - I will be out of the
building
● March 27 - Early Release/End of Quarter 3
● April 6 - 13 - Spring Break
● April 23 - Take Your Child to Work Day
● April 28 - No School
● May 25 - No School
● June 15 - Early Release/Last Day of School
Today, we will focus on the stomach. To show how
the stomach uses both mechanical and chemical
digestion, groups will be given a bag with a cracker
and part of a banana. They will squish the cracker
and banana in the bag, representing mechanical
digestion of the stomach muscles. Then add 25 mL
of colored water to the bag and squish them again.
The water represents the stomach acid in the
stomach and along with the squishing they will be
able to turn the banana and cracker into a liquidy
substance.
Throughout the week we completed a graphic
organizer labeling the organs of the digestive system
and their function after seeing how they worked first
hand.