Plant

Key Stage 1

Meaning

A plant with the roots showing.

A plant is a living thing that has roots and can make its own food.

Singular Noun: Plant

Plural Noun: Plants

Verb: To plant

About Plants

Plants usually have a part of them that is green. Most often this is their leaves, but some plants have no leaves like a cactus.

Some plants are wild and other plants are cultivated.

We get fruits and vegetables from some plants but some plants have poisonous fruit that we can't eat.

Survival

To survive a plant needs water, warmth and light.

An adult plant will wilt if it does not get enough water and then it could die.

An adult plant will die if it gets too cold and wilt and then die it if gets too hot.

An adult plant will not be able to make its own food if there is not enough light so the plant will lose its leaves and go into a dormant state.

Germination

When a seed is planted, if the conditions are right it will germinate and start to grow into an adult plant.

If there is not enough water, and it is too cold or too hot, the seed will not germinate.

Examples

A tree is a large plant with a woody trunk.	A flower only grows on flowering plants.
A fern is a plant that doesn't grow flowers.	Moss is a small soft plant that can't grow flowers.

Note for Teachers

Be careful not to suggest that plants get their food from the soil. Plants only get water and minerals from the soil. The majority of a plant is made using the Carbon Dioxide that the plant absorbed from the air.

Mushrooms are often mistaken for vegetables which also leads children to falsely identify them as a plant. They are in fact a fungus.

Key Stage 2

Meaning

A plant is an organism that makes its own food.