Printable ScholarExcretory System Diagram
Free printable excretory system diagram — a labeled illustration showing the kidneys, ureters, bladder, urethra, liver, lungs, and skin and how each removes waste from the body. Download a high-resolution PDF or PNG for Letter paper.
Part of the Excretory System teaching pack for grades 6 to 8 (introductory level): 23 lesson slides and 8 printables with answer keys. The diagram and the blank one to label are free.
A plan for the week
| Day 1 | Teach the lesson with the slides while students fill in the guided notes. Then students label the blank diagram. | Lesson slides (PowerPoint) (in the pack) Excretory System Guided Notes (in the pack) Excretory System Diagram Blank Excretory System |
| Day 2 | Students trace the path of urine and work out what each organ removes on “Read the Diagram”, then answer the questions. | Read the Diagram (in the pack) |
| Day 3 | Read “How Your Body Gets Rid of Waste” and answer the questions. | How Your Body Gets Rid of Waste (in the pack) |
| Day 4 | Put the steps of “From Blood to Urine” in order and answer the questions. | From Blood to Urine (in the pack) |
| Day 5 | Review with the crossword, then give the quiz. | Excretory System Crossword (in the pack) Excretory System Quiz (in the pack) |
The sheets marked “in the pack” are in the Excretory System teaching pack below.
NGSS standards
- Supports MS-LS1-3: Use argument supported by evidence for how the body is a system of interacting subsystems composed of groups of cells.
Excretory System teaching pack
Teaching the excretory system? Here is a ready-to-teach lesson. 23 slides and 8 printables that cover the whole topic, from the guided notes to the quiz. Present the slides while students fill in the guided notes, then use the worksheets, crossword and quiz, with every answer key.
Free on this page: the diagram and the blank one to label, marked Download below. The whole pack is $7: 17 pages in one print-ready file, the 23 lesson slides, the practice sheets, the crossword, the quiz and every answer key.
OnlineThe pack also comes as an online lesson for Google Classroom: every part on screen for students, plus a self-grading Google Forms quiz.
One-time purchase. Instant download. Secure checkout by Stripe. Want to see a whole pack first? The Cells pack is free.See all 18 packs in the bundle
- Cells
- Mitosis
- DNA
- Heredity and Punnett Squares
- Carbon Cycle and Greenhouse Effect
- The Nitrogen Cycle
- Excretory System (this pack)
- Endocrine System
- Immune System
- Layers of the Skin
- Plate Tectonics and Earthquakes
- Life Cycle of a Star
- Parts of an Atom
- The Periodic Table
- Physical and Chemical Changes
- Balancing Chemical Equations
- Waves and the Electromagnetic Spectrum
- Acids, Bases and the pH Scale
Teach Excretory System with 23 ready-made slides
Open the PowerPoint and teach: an opening question, the parts one at a time on the diagram, quick checks and an exit question. Students fill in the guided notes sheet as you go.
Every slide comes with teacher notes: what to say, what to ask, and sample answers.
The slides (PowerPoint and a PDF copy) and the guided notes sheet come with the pack.
What is in the pack, in teaching order
In the pack
1. TeachLesson Slides23 slides to present, with your notes for each one.In the $7 pack
In the pack
1. TeachExcretory System Guided NotesStudents fill in the blanks as you present. With answer key.In the $7 pack
Free
Free
In the pack
3. ReasonRead the DiagramRead the excretory system picture: trace urine out of the body, and work out what the kidneys do, where urea is made and which organs remove which wastes.In the $7 pack
In the pack
4. ReadHow Your Body Gets Rid of WasteA one-page text on how the body removes its wastes, with eight questions.In the $7 pack
In the pack
5. OrderFrom Blood to UrinePut six steps in order to show how urine is made and leaves the body, then answer three questions.In the $7 pack
In the pack
6. ReviewExcretory System CrosswordFourteen excretory system words with clues and a word bank.In the $7 pack
In the pack
7. CheckExcretory System QuizLabel five parts, six multiple choice and two written answers. Scored out of 13.In the $7 pack
Excretory System worksheets, crossword and quiz
The Excretory System teaching pack is 23 lesson slides (PowerPoint and PDF) and 8 printables with answer keys for grades 6 to 8 (introductory level), in the order you would teach them: the guided notes for the lesson slides, the labeled diagram and the blank one to label, then “Read the Diagram” (a worksheet), “How Your Body Gets Rid of Waste” (a reading passage), “From Blood to Urine” (an ordering worksheet), a vocabulary crossword and a quiz.
The sheets are in a suggested teaching order: teach the lesson, have students label the blank diagram, then work through the practice sheets and finish with the quiz. Use them all over a week or pick the ones you need. The answer keys are together at the back.
The diagram and the blank one to label are free to download on this page. The other sheets come with the pack ($7), which is also in the Middle School Science bundle (grades 5 to 10).
The organs of the excretory system
The excretory system removes waste products that build up as the body burns fuel and carries out its daily work. Here is what happens at each labeled part of the diagram:
| Part | What it does | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Kidneys | A pair of bean-shaped organs that filter waste and excess water from the blood to make urine. | Each kidney contains about a million tiny filtering units called nephrons, which together filter all of your blood roughly 30 times every day — about 180 litres of fluid processed to produce just 1-2 litres of urine. Beyond making urine, the kidneys also regulate blood pressure, control the balance of salts and minerals in the blood, and produce a hormone that tells bone marrow to make more red blood cells. |
| Ureters | Two tubes that carry urine from the kidneys down to the bladder. | The ureters do not rely on gravity — muscular walls squeeze in waves (peristalsis) to push urine downward regardless of body position. Each ureter enters the bladder at an angle that acts as a one-way valve, preventing urine from flowing back toward the kidneys when the bladder contracts during urination. |
| Urinary Bladder | A muscular bag that stores urine until it can be released. | The bladder wall is made of smooth muscle arranged in layers that allow it to stretch as it fills — a healthy adult bladder holds about 400-600 ml before the urge to urinate becomes urgent. Stretch receptors in the wall send signals to the brain when the bladder is about two-thirds full, giving you time to find a toilet rather than forcing an immediate response. |
| Urethra | The tube that carries urine from the bladder out of the body. | Two sphincter muscles — one involuntary (controlled automatically) and one voluntary (consciously controlled) — encircle the urethra. The voluntary sphincter is what you consciously contract to "hold it" and relax when urination is appropriate. Toilet training is essentially the process of learning to control that voluntary sphincter. |
| Lungs | Remove carbon dioxide — a waste gas produced by every cell — from the bloodstream through exhalation. | Carbon dioxide is the waste product of cellular respiration, the process cells use to extract energy from glucose. It diffuses from cells into the blood, travels to the lungs, and crosses into the air sacs (alveoli) to be breathed out. With every breath you exhale, you are expelling the carbon dioxide waste of millions of simultaneous chemical reactions happening throughout your body. |
| Liver | Processes chemical waste from the blood, converting it into forms the kidneys and intestines can remove. | The liver performs over 500 functions, but its excretory role is breaking down toxic substances — from alcohol to the breakdown products of dead red blood cells — into less harmful chemicals. The yellow-green bile it produces carries some of these waste products into the intestine to be eliminated in faeces; the rest are processed into water-soluble forms the kidneys can filter out. |
| Skin | Releases water, salts, and small amounts of urea through sweat. | Sweating is primarily a cooling mechanism, but sweat also removes small amounts of waste — sodium, chloride, urea, and traces of other metabolic products — making the skin a minor but real excretory organ. During intense exercise or fever, sweat glands can produce more than a litre of fluid per hour, removing significant quantities of salt and pushing the kidneys to compensate by conserving more water in the urine. |
How to print
Choose Download PDF for a ready-to-print file that fits US Letter paper (8.5 × 11") in portrait, or Download PNG for the high-resolution image.
Frequently asked questions
What is the main job of the excretory system?
To remove the waste products that build up in the body — including carbon dioxide from respiration, urea from protein breakdown, excess salts and water, and bile pigments from old red blood cells.
What is the difference between excretion and elimination?
Excretion removes waste produced by the body's own chemical reactions (like urea or CO2). Elimination removes undigested food that was never absorbed — it is a digestive process, not an excretory one.
What paper size should I print this on?
The diagram is sized for standard US Letter paper (8.5 × 11") in portrait orientation. Use "Download PDF" for a print-ready file that fits the page automatically.
Are there Excretory System worksheets to go with the diagram?
Yes. The Excretory System teaching pack, for grades 6 to 8 (introductory level), has 23 lesson slides and 8 printables with answer keys: the guided notes for the lesson slides, the labeled diagram and the blank one to label, then “Read the Diagram” (a worksheet), “How Your Body Gets Rid of Waste” (a reading passage), “From Blood to Urine” (an ordering worksheet), a vocabulary crossword and a quiz. The diagram and the blank one to label are free to download on this page. The other sheets come with the pack ($7), which is also in the Middle School Science bundle (grades 5 to 10).