These same materials are shared by all lives and have been used over and over again. Have students look at the fingernail on their little fingers. As appropriate, clarify that this applies only to the physical body, not to spirit or soul. We breathe oxygen in and carbon dioxide out. Our bodies are made entirely of what we eat and breathe.
Death is Earth's original re-cycling plan.
It is the way that shared life materials become available to new lives. A tree dies and rots back into soil for new trees to grow. A deer dies and is food for wolves, crows, blue jays, bacteria, and beetles. Mice gnaw on its antlers for calcium. Decomposition is what happens to all bodies, plant and animal, after death.