The Navel Explained: teacher key

Belly Buttons, grade 6 edition, written for 6th grade. Doctors use the navel as a landmark. See how the cord ran a baby's lifeline, how a stump heals and what makes a belly button an innie or an outie.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What does the placenta do before birth?
   • The work of the eyes
   • The work of the lungs (answer)
   • The work of the ears
2. Why do doctors often wait before cutting the cord?
   • The cord is too hard to cut
   • The baby is asleep
   • Extra blood moves to the baby, adding iron (answer)
3. What might decide an innie or an outie?
   • How the skin heals (answer)
   • How the cord was cut
   • The baby's name
4. What is a granuloma?
   • A kind of bacteria
   • A small lump of extra scar tissue (answer)
   • A blood vessel
5. How many kinds of bacteria were in the average belly button in the study?
   • About 6
   • About 107
   • About 67 (answer)
6. What does a navel help doctors do?
   • Find a reference point on the belly (answer)
   • Hear the heart
   • See bones

Words

• navel: belly button
• placenta: acts as lungs
• granuloma: small lump
• hernia: a bulge
• bacteria: tiny living things