How Plants Live

Plants are living things. How do we know something is alive? It grows. It eats. It reproduces. It moves. Plants, such as these trees, start life as tiny seedlings, so they grow.

Mrs. Greenthumb replaced them with bigger plants. In the spring, Mrs. Greenthumb planted tiny squash plants in her garden. By July, the plants had leaves as big as a plate. What happened to the squash plants? Mrs. Greenthumb replaced them with bigger plants. The squirrels pulled on the leaves and stretched them. They grew.

Plants eat. Plants get their nutrients in two ways: They get water and minerals from the soil through their roots. Plants take in carbon dioxide from air. Using energy from the sun, plants break the carbon dioxide apart, keep the carbon as food, and release the oxygen.

What do plants take from the air? Oxygen Carbon dioxide Water

Plants reproduce. Plants produce seeds or spores to make more plants like themselves. A dandelion produces many seeds that can be carried far away by the wind. Oak trees make acorns that squirrels collect and store for winter. New oak trees grow from the acorns that the squirrels forget about. Ferns produce spores, which rain washes to the ground. The spores grow into structures that make egg and sperm cells, which unite to produce new ferns.

Can you match these seeds to the plants that make them? Corn plants Oak tree Dandelion

Plants move too. You can’t see plants move, but they do. They can change the direction of their leaves and stems to catch the most sunlight. They move so slowly that you can’t see the movement. Have you ever noticed that a house plant in the window turns the tops of its leaves toward the window? If you turn the plant around so that the leaves are facing away from the window, after a week or so, the leaves will be turned toward the window again.

The leaves on your mom’s Swedish Ivy plant all face the window The leaves on your mom’s Swedish Ivy plant all face the window. If you turn the plant around so that the leaves face into the room, will the leaves still all face into the room in a month?