FREE Digestive System Worksheet - Free Printable

To solve this problem, we need to match each description of a digestive process to the correct part of the body shown in the diagram. Let’s go step by step through how food travels and what happens at each stage.

1. “The food is chewed and mixed with saliva.”
→ This happens in the mouth. That’s where you start eating — chewing breaks food into smaller pieces, and saliva helps moisten it.

2. “The food moves to the food tube.”
→ After chewing, food goes down the throat (pharynx) into the food tube, which is also called the esophagus. But note: the next line says “moves to the food tube/esophagus” — so this one might be referring to the throat or just after the mouth. Actually, looking carefully, the second box says “moves to the food tube” — that likely means from the mouth to the esophagus. So we’ll assign this to the esophagus entrance / throat area.

Wait — let’s look again at the list:

Actually, the boxes are:

- The food is chewed and mixed with saliva. → Mouth
- The food moves to the food tube. → This probably means moving FROM mouth TO esophagus — so still related to mouth/throat transition
But then there’s another box: “The food moves to the food tube/esophagus.” — Hmm, maybe there’s a typo? Or perhaps they mean two different things?

Let me re-read all 8 descriptions:

1. The food is chewed and mixed with saliva. → Mouth
2. The food moves to the food tube. → Probably meaning enters the esophagus — so esophagus
3. The food moves to the food tube/esophagus. → Wait, this seems redundant. Maybe it's a mistake? Or perhaps #2 is "moves to the food tube" (meaning starts going down) and #3 is "moves along the esophagus"? But that doesn’t make sense.

Actually, looking at standard digestion order:

Food path:
Mouth → Esophagus → Stomach → Small Intestine → Large Intestine → Anus

Functions:
- Mouth: chew + saliva
- Esophagus: moves food to stomach
- Stomach: mixes with juices, turns to paste
- Small intestine: nutrients absorbed
- Large intestine: water absorbed, waste formed
- Anus: waste released

Now match the given statements:

A. “The food is chewed and mixed with saliva.” → Mouth

B. “The food moves to the food tube.” → Likely refers to entering the esophagus → Esophagus

C. “The food moves to the food tube/esophagus.” → This seems like a repeat. Maybe it’s meant to say “moves through the esophagus”? But since B already said “moves to”, perhaps C is mislabeled. Alternatively, maybe “moves to the food tube” is the action of swallowing, and “moves to the food tube/esophagus” is redundant. I think there may be an error in the worksheet labeling.

Wait — let’s count the boxes. There are 8 boxes on the right. And 8 parts/functions to match.

List them clearly:

Box 1: The food is chewed and mixed with saliva. → Mouth

Box 2: The food moves to the food tube. → This should be the esophagus (since food moves from mouth to esophagus)

Box 3: The food moves to the food tube/esophagus. → This is confusing. Perhaps it’s a duplicate? Or maybe it’s supposed to be “moves through the esophagus to the stomach”? But no — let’s assume it’s a typo and move on.

Actually, looking at common worksheets, sometimes they have:

- Mouth: chew/saliva
- Esophagus: carries food to stomach
- Stomach: churns/mixes with acid
- Small intestine: absorbs nutrients
- Large intestine: absorbs water, forms feces
- Rectum/anus: releases waste

Also, intestinal juices help digest food — that’s small intestine.

Stomach juices mash food and turn it to paste — that’s stomach.

Nutrients get absorbed — small intestine.

Waste is released — anus.

So let’s map:

→ “The food is chewed and mixed with saliva.” = Mouth

→ “The food moves to the food tube.” = Esophagus (because food moves from mouth into esophagus)

→ “The food moves to the food tube/esophagus.” — This must be a mistake. Perhaps it’s meant to be “moves from esophagus to stomach”? But it says “to the food tube/esophagus”. Maybe ignore the redundancy and treat as same as above? No — better to assume it’s a labeling error and proceed logically.

Wait — perhaps “The food moves to the food tube.” is the act of swallowing (so throat), and “The food moves to the food tube/esophagus.” is actually referring to the esophagus itself? That doesn’t help.

Alternative approach: Let’s number the organs in the diagram from top to bottom:

Top: Head/Mouth
Then: Throat/Esophagus (tube going down)
Then: Stomach (J-shaped organ)
Then: Small intestine (coiled tubes)
Then: Large intestine (wider tube around small intestine)
Bottom: Anus (exit)

Now match functions:

1. Chewed + saliva → Mouth ✔️

2. Moves to food tube → After mouth, food enters esophagus → so point to esophagus

3. Moves to food tube/esophagus → Again, same? Maybe this is a trick. Perhaps “moves to the food tube” is the pharynx, and “moves to the food tube/esophagus” is the esophagus? But that’s splitting hairs.

Looking at typical answers for such worksheets:

Usually:

- Mouth: chew/saliva
- Esophagus: transports food to stomach
- Stomach: mixes with gastric juices, becomes chyme (paste)
- Small intestine: digestion continues with intestinal juices, nutrient absorption
- Large intestine: absorbs water, forms solid waste
- Anus: expels waste

Given that, let’s assign:

“The food is chewed and mixed with saliva.” → Mouth

“The food moves to the food tube.” → Esophagus (as it receives food from mouth)

“The food moves to the food tube/esophagus.” — This is problematic. Perhaps it’s a copy-paste error and should be “moves from esophagus to stomach”? In that case, it would still be esophagus doing the moving, but destination is stomach. But the statement says “moves to the food tube/esophagus” — which implies arriving at esophagus. So maybe both #2 and #3 refer to esophagus? Unlikely.

Another idea: Maybe “The food moves to the food tube.” is the initial entry (pharynx), and “The food moves to the food tube/esophagus.” is emphasizing the esophagus as the tube. Still messy.

Let’s skip and do the obvious ones first.

“The food moves into the stomach.” → Clearly Stomach

“The food moves into the stomach.” — wait, there are TWO boxes saying that? Let’s check:

Original text:

Boxes:

1. The food is chewed and mixed with saliva.

2. The food moves to the food tube.

3. The food moves to the food tube/esophagus.

4. The food moves into the stomach.

5. The food moves into the stomach. ← duplicate?

6. Intestinal juices help to digest the food.

7. The stomach juices mashes the food and turns it to paste.

8. Nutrients get absorbed.

9. Waste is released.

Wait — I counted 9? No, let’s recount from image description:

User provided:

Right side has these boxes:

- The food is chewed and mixed with saliva.

- The food moves to the food tube.

- The food moves to the food tube/esophagus.

- The food moves into the stomach.

- The food moves into the stomach. ← yes, duplicated?

No — looking back at user input:

"The food moves into the stomach." appears twice? Let me quote:

From user:

> The food is chewed and mixed with saliva.
> The food moves to the food tube.
> The food moves to the food tube/esophagus.
> The food moves into the stomach.
> The food moves into the stomach.
> Intestinal juices help to digest the food.
> The stomach juices mashes the food and turns it to paste.
> Nutrients get absorbed.
> Waste is released.

That’s 9 items! But the diagram probably has 8 connection points? Or maybe I miscounted.

In the image description, it's listed as 8 boxes? Let me see:

User wrote:

"Draw a line showing which part... performs this function:"

Then lists:

1. The food is chewed and mixed with saliva.

2. The food moves to the food tube.

3. The food moves to the food tube/esophagus.

4. The food moves into the stomach.

5. The food moves into the stomach. ← duplicate?

6. Intestinal juices help to digest the food.

7. The stomach juices mashes the food and turns it to paste.

8. Nutrients get absorbed.

9. Waste is released.

That’s 9. But typically, such worksheets have 8. Perhaps "The food moves into the stomach." is repeated by mistake.

Maybe the fifth one is "The food moves into the small intestine"? But user wrote "stomach" twice.

Assuming it's a typo, and the fifth should be "small intestine", but we have to work with what's given.

Perhaps "The food moves into the stomach." is listed twice to emphasize, but we only connect once.

Better to assume the intended matches are:

Let’s list unique functions:

- Chewing/saliva: mouth

- Moving to food tube: esophagus (entry)

- Moving to food tube/esophagus: perhaps this is the same, or maybe it's the peristalsis in esophagus

- Moving into stomach: stomach

- Moving into stomach: again? Skip or combine

- Intestinal juices: small intestine

- Stomach juices mash food: stomach

- Nutrients absorbed: small intestine

- Waste released: anus

So some parts will have multiple lines pointing to them.

For example, stomach will have: "moves into stomach", "stomach juices mash food"

Small intestine: "intestinal juices", "nutrients absorbed"

Esophagus: "moves to food tube", "moves to food tube/esophagus" — if we take both as esophagus

Mouth: chew/saliva

Anus: waste released

And the duplicate "moves into stomach" can be ignored or assigned to stomach again.

But to be precise, let's define the connections:

Final mapping:

- Mouth: "The food is chewed and mixed with saliva."

- Esophagus:
- "The food moves to the food tube."
- "The food moves to the food tube/esophagus." (assuming this means the same thing or emphasizes the tube)

- Stomach:
- "The food moves into the stomach." (first occurrence)
- "The stomach juices mashes the food and turns it to paste."
- "The food moves into the stomach." (second occurrence — perhaps redundant, but if must, still stomach)

- Small Intestine:
- "Intestinal juices help to digest the food."
- "Nutrients get absorbed."

- Large Intestine: Not explicitly mentioned, but "waste is released" might involve it, but usually waste release is anus.

"Waste is released." → Anus

What about large intestine? It's not directly described, but "intestinal juices" could include large, but typically intestinal juices refer to small intestine enzymes.

Also, large intestine absorbs water, but that's not listed.

So probably, the large intestine isn't matched to any specific box, or perhaps "waste is released" includes its role, but the release is via anus.

In many simplified diagrams, they don't distinguish large intestine separately for function matching if not mentioned.

Given that, here's the accurate matching:

Step-by-step assignment:

1. "The food is chewed and mixed with saliva." → Draw line to Mouth

2. "The food moves to the food tube." → Draw line to Esophagus (the tube leading down)

3. "The food moves to the food tube/esophagus." → Also to Esophagus (perhaps emphasizing the structure)

4. "The food moves into the stomach." → Draw line to Stomach

5. "The food moves into the stomach." → Again to Stomach (if required, though redundant)

6. "Intestinal juices help to digest the food." → Draw line to Small Intestine (where most digestion occurs with juices)

7. "The stomach juices mashes the food and turns it to paste." → Draw line to Stomach

8. "Nutrients get absorbed." → Draw line to Small Intestine

9. "Waste is released." → Draw line to Anus (at the very end)

Note: The large intestine is involved in forming waste, but since "waste is released" specifies release, it's the anus. Also, no box mentions water absorption or feces formation, so large intestine might not be connected, or perhaps "intestinal juices" could be interpreted broadly, but typically it's small intestine.

In the diagram, the coiled part is small intestine, the wider surrounding tube is large intestine, and the exit is anus.

So for accuracy:

- Small intestine: handles intestinal juices and nutrient absorption

- Large intestine: not directly matched, but if "waste is released" implies the entire lower tract, still the release point is anus.

I think it's safe to assign:

Final Answer:

- "The food is chewed and mixed with saliva." → Mouth

- "The food moves to the food tube." → Esophagus

- "The food moves to the food tube/esophagus." → Esophagus

- "The food moves into the stomach." → Stomach

- "The food moves into the stomach." → Stomach (duplicate, but if must connect, same)

- "Intestinal juices help to digest the food." → Small Intestine

- "The stomach juices mashes the food and turns it to paste." → Stomach

- "Nutrients get absorbed." → Small Intestine

- "Waste is released." → Anus

Since the worksheet likely expects one line per box, and there are 9 boxes, but the diagram may have 8 labeled parts, perhaps the duplicate "moves into stomach" is a mistake, and we should consider only unique assignments.

But to comply with the task, I'll provide the matching as above.

However, upon double-checking standard educational resources, a typical matching for such a diagram is:

- Mouth: chewed and mixed with saliva

- Esophagus: moves food to stomach (so "moves to the food tube" and "moves to the food tube/esophagus" both refer to esophagus)

- Stomach: moves into stomach, stomach juices mash food

- Small intestine: intestinal juices digest, nutrients absorbed

- Anus: waste released

The large intestine is often included for "absorbs water" or "forms feces", but here it's not mentioned, so perhaps not used.

Also, the phrase "The food moves into the stomach." appearing twice might be an error; perhaps one is meant to be "moves into the small intestine". But since it's written as is, we'll assign both to stomach.

For the purpose of this response, I'll list the final answer as the correct body part for each statement.

Final Answer:

- The food is chewed and mixed with saliva. → Mouth

- The food moves to the food tube. → Esophagus

- The food moves to the food tube/esophagus. → Esophagus

- The food moves into the stomach. → Stomach

- The food moves into the stomach. → Stomach

- Intestinal juices help to digest the food. → Small Intestine

- The stomach juices mashes the food and turns it to paste. → Stomach

- Nutrients get absorbed. → Small Intestine

- Waste is released. → Anus

Note: If the worksheet has only 8 connection points, the duplicate "moves into stomach" might be omitted, but based on the given text, this is the accurate matching.