3. From Tasting to Digesting
Class 5 · Environmental Studies
4 ideas in Class 5 Environmental Studies, explained in plain words, with games and quizzes to practise.
Tasting Uses More Than the Tongue
Part of: Food, Taste and the Body
The chapter shows children identifying foods with their eyes closed. Jhumpa recognizes lemon and jaggery by taste, and she recognizes fried fish before tasting it. Closing the nose can make a food harder to identify because smell also adds information.
Why it matters. Children can notice how several senses work together when they eat and describe food.
Try it in two minutes
- Ask what clues help recognize a food with eyes closed.
- Compare tasting with and without noticing its smell.
- Name different words people use for flavours.
Try at home. Talk about a familiar food and describe its taste and smell. Do not taste unknown or unsafe substances.
Chewing and the Stomach
Part of: Food, Taste and the Body
The chapter asks children to compare chewing food a few times with chewing it many times. It asks what saliva does, then explains that the stomach churns food and has acidic digestive juice. Dr. Beaumont's story compares digestion in a stomach with digestion in a glass of digestive juice.
Why it matters. This gives children a simple way to think about digestion as a process involving several parts of the body.
Try it in two minutes
- Ask what changes when a bite is chewed well.
- Trace the food from the mouth to the stomach in words.
- Name two actions the chapter says help with digestion.
Try at home. At a meal, notice how chewing changes a bite before swallowing. Eat safely and at a comfortable pace.
Experiments and Evidence about Digestion
Part of: Food, Taste and the Body
Dr. Beaumont placed food in digestive juice in a glass kept near stomach temperature and compared it with food Martin ate. His table lists different digestion times for boiled and unboiled milk and for eggs prepared in different ways. In every listed case, the time in the glass is longer.
Why it matters. Children can practice comparing observations and noticing what a table supports.
Try it in two minutes
- Choose one row and compare the two time entries.
- Notice whether the glass or stomach time is longer.
- Explain what a fair comparison means when the same food is tested.
Try at home. Compare two safe everyday observations in a small table, such as how long two ice cubes take to melt in different places.
Food, Energy and Good Health
Part of: Food, Taste and the Body
The chapter compares Rashmi, who does not get enough food, with Kailash, whose diet consists mostly of market snacks and soft drinks. The doctor says both need proper food. It also states that every child has a right to enough proper food to grow and develop.
Why it matters. Children can understand that good health depends on suitable food and that access to enough food matters.
Try it in two minutes
- Compare the different food situations described for Rashmi and Kailash.
- Ask what the doctor says both children need.
- Discuss why enough proper food matters for growth and activity.
Try at home. Plan a meal using familiar foods from different groups, with an adult's help.
What your child will practise
- Chewing and the Stomach: Lab Explorer Quest (Collect the Answer)
- Experiments and Evidence about Digestion: Candy Quick Fire (Quick Fire)
- Food, Energy and Good Health: Desert Puzzle (Clue Puzzle)
- Food, Energy and Good Health: Garden Quest (Collect the Answer)
- Tasting Uses More Than the Tongue: Space Quick Fire (Quick Fire)
- Quiz: Chewing and the Stomach (8 questions)
- Quiz: Experiments and Evidence about Digestion (8 questions)
- Quiz: Food, Energy and Good Health (8 questions)
- Quiz: Tasting Uses More Than the Tongue (8 questions)