KELLY STUDENTS ARE `CHEWED UP AND SNEEZED OUT' OF BODY WALK

BENTON -- Elementary students were chewed up, swallowed, digested and eventually sneezed out as they took a "fantastic voyage" through the human body Monday at Kelly Schools.

The project, called Body Walk, allowed kindergarten through fourth-grade students to crawl inside a make-believe body and look around.

About 45 Kelly High School students enrolled in health and child development classes organized and presented the view from the inside, said Donna Anderson, who teaches those two high school courses. The body was set up in different stations in the elementary school gymnasium.

Becky Merritt, a senior child development students, said: "The kids learn better how their body works together, and it's something different from what we do every day.

"It's fun working with the kids. But this took a lot of hard work and creativity. We tried to make it as fun and as close to real as possible."

Anderson said, "Basically for the younger students it teaches good nutrition and how the body works. The older students learn how to work with younger kids and the project reinforces the things they have learned in nutrition classes."

After an introduction and a overview of the trip's itinerary mouth, stomach, intestines muscles, bones, heart, lungs and nose youngsters stepped on the red-carpet tongue and entered the mouth.

After an attempt at eating a cracker without using their teeth, the youngsters traveled on-stage to the stomach. The stomach-growlers nutrition rock band helped explain the importance of eating healthy food.

As the journey continued, the students were transformed into nutrients and absorbed in the muscles.

The boys locker room was transformed into the heart, with red lights and red blood cell balloons. The Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz urged students to take care of their heart.

The girls locker rooms became lungs, with examples of healthy pink lungs and brown lungs damaged by cigarette smoking.

"We also give them balloons to see who well they can blow them up," said Melissa Riley, a sophomore health student in the lung. "It's been a lot of work, but it's a lot of fun."

Her cohort, sophomore Amy LaRue, admitted she learned a little about lungs. "I really didn't think lungs would look that awful after smoking."

The youngsters were "exhaled" by crawling through the nose.

Third-grader Adam Daughhetee said, "The part I liked best was the nose because it had paint that looked like slime. We had to crawl through the nose so we could get out.

"It was gross," he said with a delighted smile. "Thank goodness it wasn't a real body."

"I liked the heart the best," said Derick Bramlett, also a third grader. "They hung red balloons from the ceiling and the lights were red and the Tin Man was there."

Amy Cato said she too liked the heart best. "I learned how big it was, the size of my fist, and I liked the sound." Students had rigged a pumping sound for the youngsters enjoyment.

Cato added that she learned quite a few facts about the body during her voyage. For example, she said, "You have to have muscles to blink you eyes."

Third-grader Stacey Evans said she liked the stomach best "because I got to play an instrument. I was Annie Apples."

But she said traveling through the Body Walk took a toll. "I lost my appetite, but it's more fun than looking at it a book."

The Body Walk is a project of the St. Louis District Dairy Council, which provided an outline and tips to help students put together the model.