🔬 ScienceGrade 2Lesson 3
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How Plants Make Food

How to use: Download the PDF to print the worksheet. Then use this page to repeat activities and check answers.

Learning Objectives

  • 1Explain how plants make their own food through photosynthesis
  • 2Name the three ingredients a plant needs — sunlight, water, and air
  • 3Describe what the plant produces — sugar and oxygen
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Mini Lesson

You need to eat food to get energy — but plants don't visit a grocery store! They make their own food using something called photosynthesis.

The three ingredients

  • Plants need sunlight (energy from the sun).
  • They need water (taken in by the roots and sent up the stem).
  • They need air — specifically a gas called carbon dioxide, which enters through tiny holes in the leaves.

Where does it happen?

  • Photosynthesis happens inside the leaves.
  • Leaves are green because of a special substance called chlorophyll, which captures sunlight.

What does the plant make?

  • The plant makes sugar — its food — and uses it to grow.
  • It also releases oxygen into the air as a bonus — the same oxygen we breathe!
Vocabulary
Photosynthesis
The process plants use to make food from sunlight, water, and aire.g. Green leaves perform photosynthesis every sunny day.
Chlorophyll
A green substance in leaves that captures sunlighte.g. Leaves look green because of chlorophyll.
Sunlight
Light energy from the sun that plants need to make foode.g. A sunny window helps a houseplant grow.
Carbon dioxide
A gas in the air that plants take in through their leavese.g. People breathe out carbon dioxide; plants use it.
Oxygen
A gas released by plants during photosynthesis; animals breathe ite.g. Forests give off large amounts of oxygen.
Sugar
The food plants make during photosynthesise.g. Plants store extra sugar in their roots and fruits.
Photosynthesis diagramA diagram showing sunlight, water, and air going into a leaf, and food (sugar) and oxygen coming out.PhotosynthesisSunlightWaterAir (CO2)LEAFSugar (food)O2OxygenINOUT
Photosynthesis — sunlight, water, and air go in; sugar and oxygen come out.
Photosynthesis step by stepFour numbered steps showing how a plant makes food.Steps of Photosynthesis1Sunlight hitsthe green leaf.2Roots send waterup the stem to the leaf.3The leaf takes inair through tiny holes.4Leaf makes sugar and releases oxygen.
Four numbered steps of photosynthesis.
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Ask yourself: What three things does a leaf need? What does it make? What gas does it release?

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Guided Practice

Sketch the photosynthesis diagram from your paper worksheet. Then use the Tracing Pad to practice the science words from this lesson.

Tracing Pad

Tip: Try tracing 'photosynthesis' slowly — it is a long word, but you can do it!

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Exercises

Read the four steps of photosynthesis. Tap a card, then tap the slot on the timeline where it belongs — 1, 2, 3, or 4.

1
2
3
4

1. What is photosynthesis?

2. Which THREE ingredients does a plant need to make food?

3. In which plant part does photosynthesis happen?

4. Why are leaves green?

5. What does a plant produce during photosynthesis?

6. Why is the oxygen plants release important?

7. What is the FIRST step of photosynthesis?

8. How does water reach the leaves for photosynthesis?

9. How does air enter a leaf?

10. What would happen to a plant kept in total darkness?

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Assessment

Parent / Teacher Checklist

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