What Plants Need

What Plants Need

What students learn

Students learn that plants are living things and need water, soil, air, light, and space. Start with What Plants Need: Hear the Plant Song so the needs are easy to remember.

Why it matters

When children know what plants need, they can help care for a plant at home, at school, or in a garden. Use What Plants Need: Water and Soil to connect the idea to something they can see and touch.

Learn the idea

Plants cannot choose their own food the way people can. They depend on the environment around them. What Plants Need: Air, Light, and Space helps students finish the list of plant needs.

Try it

Look at a plant and point to the water, light, and space it gets. Then ask the child to name one thing the plant still needs.

Parent guide

Keep the talk simple and concrete. If the child says a plant only needs water, point to sunlight and open space and ask what else the plant uses.