Saturday, March 15, 2008

Flat Emma

My niece, Emma is in the 1st grade and one of her assignments is to send a small, laminated version of herself to someone far away to see what kinds of adventures "Flat Emma" can have. We were the proud recipients of Flat Emma. Samantha was in one of her frenzied carnivore moods, and Flat Emma was devoured almost as soon as she came out of her envelope.


Flat Emma starts her adventure through the digestive process in Samantha's mouth, where food is chewed up and mixed with saliva. This makes food easy to swallow and starts to break down the simple starches into sugars.

Flat Emma is then pushed to the back of Sam's mouth by the tongue and then she goes through the ESOPHAGUS. This is the tube that takes food down into the stomach. It has SPHINCTERS at both ends to keep food from coming back up.

Here she is in the STOMACH. It's a bag that can stretch as more food goes into it. Those ridges are called RUGAE (roo'-gay) that help mix up the food. The stomach also makes acid that kills bacteria and breaks down the food.

After the stomach, Flat Emma goes into the SMALL INTESTINE, which could also be called the "long intestine." In a grown up, the small intestine is about 20 feet long! This is where most of the good stuff is taken out of the food so it can be used by the body.

After the small intestine, Flat Emma and all the digested food go into the LARGE INTESTINE or COLON. In the colon, most of the water is pulled out so the soupy, used up food turns into poop.

The large intestine empties into the rectum, where the poop piles up before it's pushed out. It's a good thing Samantha hasn't learned how to use the toilet. Otherwise, Flat Emma would be on her way to the Kansas City Water Treatment Plant.

Flat Emma sure had an interesting trip through the DIGESTIVE SYSTEM. Maybe next time, she'll go to Cincinnati.

7 comments:

Johanna and Josh said...

You're going to get that poor kid suspended.

GordonandChrissy said...

That's hilarious. We did the Flat Stanley thing in my 2nd grade class and I must say...we never got anything quite that creative back. :)

JS said...

You guys are hilarious! I love it. Flat Stanley is my favorite thing to do with a classroom... I have never had anyone be that creative though! :)

About the Elephant book... I actually really liked it, but I am not recommending it to anyone because it has some (as in like 5) really "sketchy" parts. I mean, really sketchy... plus to describe anger, the author is at a loss of good vocabulary words, and uses... others that are vulgar. Anyways, if you were thinking about reading it... read it at your own risk.

Stephanie ODea said...

bwhahahahahahahahaha that is the best photo shopping I've seen in a LONG time.

totally hillarious.

-steph

GordonandChrissy said...

So...we're looking for some more cute pictures up here, it's been a while. (foot tapping to the side) :)

The Hiller Family said...

That is the most clever post I've ever seen - -EVER! Very cool. Flat Emma had an amazing adventure! I'm not jealous though! Good thing it ended and she was able to see the light again!
BTW, I am Alycia (Danielson) Nelson's sister. I was living with her for a short time at U.Villa as well and remember you! Cute family!

Brits said...

We had Flat Megan in Hawaii, and she got eaten by sharks. We didn't get to actually see the whole process though. That's awesome. :)