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Biological ScienceLife ProcessesYear 1 Science

What your body needs: air, food and water

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What this lesson covers

  • Your body needs air, food and water to live, move and grow
  • Food and water go in through your mouth
  • Air goes in and out through your nose and mouth
  • Your body gets rid of what it does not need
  • Using labels and arrows to show what goes in and out
Key idea

Three things you need

  • Your body needs air, food and water every day.
  • They keep you alive.
  • They give you energy to run and play.
  • They help you grow bigger.
Key idea

Air in, air out

  • You breathe air in through your nose and mouth.
  • The air goes down into your lungs, inside your chest.
  • Then you breathe the air out again.
  • Put your hand on your chest and take a big breath. Feel your chest go up and down.
Key idea

Food and water go in through your mouth

  • You eat food and drink water through your mouth.
  • Your teeth chew food into small soft pieces.
  • When you swallow, food and drink go down a tube to your stomach.
Key idea

Try it: lungs or stomach?

Key idea

A map of what goes in and out

  • Arrows show which way things move.
  • An arrow pointing into the body shows something going in.
  • An arrow pointing away shows something coming out.
  • Labels name each thing that moves.
An outline of a body with the lungs and stomach inside; arrows show air going in and out at the face, food and water going in at the mouth, and urine and faeces leaving at the bottom
Key idea

Getting rid of what you do not need

  • Your body does not use everything that goes in.
  • The air you breathe out carries away a gas your body does not need.
  • Water your body does not need leaves as urine, or wee.
  • Food your body cannot use leaves as faeces, or poo.
  • Always wash your hands after you go to the toilet.
Worked example

In or out?

  • Decide if each one goes into the body or comes out: drinking milk, breathing out, going to the toilet.
A circle for the body with three arrows going in, labelled air, food and water, and three arrows coming out, labelled air, urine and faeces
  1. Drinking milk: into the body, through the moutha drink goes in
  2. Breathing out: out of the body, through the nose or mouthair comes out
  3. Going to the toilet: urine or faeces come outwaste leaves
  4. In, out, out
Key idea

Try it: in or out?

Common mistakes

  • When I swallow food, it goes into my lungs.
    Food goes down a tube to your stomach; only air goes into your lungs.
  • I only need water when I feel thirsty.
    Your body needs water every day, and feeling thirsty means it already needs more.
  • The air I breathe out is just the same as the air I breathe in.
    Breathed-out air carries away a gas your body does not need.
Try it at home

Count your breaths

You need: a clock or timer, paper, a pencil, a clear patch of floor

  1. Sit still. Ask an adult to time 1 minute while you count your breaths in.
  2. Write the number down.
  3. Jump up and down 20 times.
  4. Sit down and count your breaths for 1 minute again.
  5. Look for this: you breathe more after jumping, because your moving body needs more air.

Safety: Jump on a clear floor away from furniture with an adult nearby, and stop and rest if you feel dizzy or puffed.

Your turn

1

Which part of your body does food go in through?

2

Where does air go when you breathe in?

3

Breathing out: is that arrow into the body or out of it?

4

Name the three things your body needs every day.

5

How does water your body does not need leave it?

Show answer

1. The mouth. 2. Down into the lungs. 3. Out of the body. 4. Air, food and water. 5. As urine, or wee.

Summary

Recap

  • Your body needs air, food and water to live, move and grow.
  • Food and water go in through your mouth.
  • Air goes in and out through your nose and mouth.
  • Waste leaves your body as breathed-out air, urine and faeces.
  • Arrows and labels show what goes in and what comes out.
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