Download Caring for Plants - Glasgow Science Centre

Caring for Plants
This early year’s activity is designed to help your pupils make a display in their nursery about
the different parts of plants, and be able to identify what plants need to grow! It would be a good
idea to have a real plant in the nursery for the purposes of this activity.
Learning Objective: I can name the main parts of plants and talk about the things plants need in
order to grow and survive
Learning Experiences: I have helped to grow plants and can name their basic parts. I can talk about
how they grow and what I need to do to look after them SCN 0-03a
Print out and use the labels below to label the different parts of your plant, or use the image
we’ve supplied to help you with this if a real plant is not available. This would be a suitable
small group activity.
Flower
Stem
Leaves
Roots
Caring for Plants
Useful Information for Education Practitioners
What do plants need to grow?
Plants need water, sunlight, air (CO2) and soil to survive and grow. Animals have to find and eat
food, but plants are able to make their own, by a process, called photosynthesis. During
photosynthesis, plants use energy from the sun to change carbon dioxide (CO2 - carbon and
oxygen) and water (H2O- hydrogen and oxygen) into starches and sugars. These starches and
sugars are the plant's food. Photosynthesis means "making things with light".
Why do plants need dirt?
Plants get their food and water from soil. The soil also helps support the plants roots and stops it
from being blown away or falling over in strong winds. There are nutrients in the soil that plants need
to grow, primarily; Nitrogen, Potassium and Phosphorus which are taken in through the roots. Plants
use large amounts of these nutrients to grow healthy, and soil can lack these vital nutrients. Farmers
and gardeners replace these nutrients using fertiliser.
Interesting facts
The largest seed in the world is the double coconut. It can measure up to 50cm (1.6ft) around the
middle! Coconuts have a fibrous coating and an air space inside them, because they need to be able
to float to a new home. Some coconuts have floated 2,000km over the sea before they find dry land!
Seeds provide the world's daily food. Your breakfast cereal and toast, your pasta or pizza lunch and
your rice dish for tea all started life as seeds from different grasses.
Caring for Plants
What do plants need to grow? Get your pupils to select the images representing the essential
items that plants need to grow (Sunlight, water, soil and carbon dioxide (gas))