🎯 Learning outcomes
- Explain the functions of root, stem, leaf, flower, fruit and seed
- Describe how leaves make food using sunlight (photosynthesis, simply)
- Describe how seeds are spread and how they germinate
Before you start: Naming the parts of a plant.
📖 Explanation
Roots anchor the plant and absorb water and minerals. Tap roots have one main root (mustard, carrot); fibrous roots are a bunch of thin roots (grass, wheat). The stem carries water up from roots to leaves and food down from leaves.
Leaves make food in a process called photosynthesis: using sunlight, carbon dioxide from the air and water, the green pigment chlorophyll helps make sugar, and oxygen is given out. Tiny pores on leaves (stomata) let gases in and out and let water vapour escape.
Flowers make seeds. Seeds are spread by wind (cotton, dandelion), water (coconut), animals (sticky burrs, fruits eaten by birds) or by bursting pods (balsam). A seed germinates when it gets water, air and warmth.
A coconut can float in the sea and grow on a distant beach, which is one reason coconut palms line the coasts of Kerala and the Andaman Islands.
✗ Plants get their food from the soil
✓ Plants make their own food in their leaves using sunlight, air and water; soil gives water and minerals.
🧪 Try this activity
Put a white flower or celery stalk in water with food colour. After a day, see the colour in the petals or leaves, showing the stem carries water up.
✍️ Question bank with answers
Tap an option to check multiple-choice answers. Open “Answer” or “Marking points” for the others.
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Which gas do plants take in to make food?
Answer
A. carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide combines with water to make sugar in sunlight.
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Seeds of cotton are spread mainly by
Answer
B. wind
Their fluffy fibres catch the wind.
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Wheat has
Answer
D. fibrous roots
Grasses and cereals have bunches of thin roots.
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What is the green pigment in leaves called?
Answer
chlorophyll
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Name the tiny pores on leaves.
Answer
stomata
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Name three things a seed needs to germinate.
Marking points
- Water
- Air
- Warmth
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Explain how a leaf makes food and why this is important for all living things.
Marking points
- Leaves take in carbon dioxide through stomata and water from roots
- Chlorophyll uses sunlight to make food (sugar)
- Oxygen is released
- Animals depend on plants for food and oxygen
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Why do farmers plough and water the soil before sowing seeds?
Answer
- Loose soil lets air and water reach seeds
- Water helps seeds germinate
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Draw a leaf and show what goes in (sunlight, carbon dioxide, water) and what comes out (oxygen, food).
Answer
- Arrows for sunlight, carbon dioxide and water in
- Oxygen out and food made
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