What your child learns
- Name the stages of a flowering plant's life cycle: seed, sprout, seedling, adult plant, flower, fruit and seeds.
- Explain what plants need to live and grow: water, light, air and nutrients.
- Run a simple test to see what happens when a plant gets no light or no water.
NGSS K-LS1-1 NGSS 2-LS2-1
Every apple tree, sunflower and blade of grass started as something very small. A life cycle is the set of stages a living thing goes through as it grows and makes new living things. For flowering plants, the cycle goes in a circle: seeds grow into plants, and plants make new seeds.
The stages of a plant's life cycle
- Seed: a tiny baby plant with a food store, wrapped in a tough seed coat.
- Sprout (germination): with water and warmth, the seed coat splits. A root grows down first, then a shoot grows up.
- Seedling: the young plant grows its first leaves and starts to make its own food using sunlight.
- Adult plant: the plant grows taller, with more leaves and stronger roots.
- Flower: flowers make pollen. Bees, butterflies and the wind carry pollen from flower to flower (pollination).
- Fruit and seeds: after pollination, the flower makes seeds, often inside a fruit. The seeds fall, blow away or are carried by animals, and the cycle starts again.
Example: The sunflower's year
In spring, a sunflower seed is planted. In about a week it sprouts. By summer the plant is taller than a grown-up, and a big yellow flower opens. Bees visit the flower. By autumn, the flower head is packed with hundreds of new seeds. Birds eat some, and people save some to plant next spring.
What plants need
| Need | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Water | Carries nutrients from the roots to the leaves and keeps the plant firm. |
| Light | Leaves use sunlight to make food (sugar) for the plant. |
| Air | Leaves take in carbon dioxide from the air to make food. |
| Nutrients | Soil gives plants minerals they need to grow healthy. |
Quick quiz
- Which part grows out of the seed first: the root or the shoot?
- What do we call a young plant with its first leaves?
- Name one animal that helps carry pollen.
- Where are seeds often found after a flower is pollinated?
- A plant is kept in a dark closet for two weeks. What do you think its leaves will look like?
- Put these in order: flower, seed, seedling, sprout.
Show answers
- The root grows first.
- A seedling.
- Bees, butterflies, hummingbirds or moths.
- Inside a fruit.
- Pale yellow and weak, because it cannot make food without light.
- Seed, sprout, seedling, flower.
Mix-ups to watch for
- "Plants eat soil." Plants make their own food from light, air and water. Soil gives them minerals, not meals.
- "Seeds need sunlight to sprout." Most seeds sprout in the dark. They need light once their leaves appear.
Try it at home: the bean-in-a-bag experiment
Fold a damp paper towel into a clear zip bag, slide in 3 dry beans and tape the bag to a sunny window. Check every day and draw what you see. In about a week, roots and then shoots appear. For a fair test, put a second bag in a dark cupboard and compare the leaves after two weeks.
Keep exploring with the Living and Nonliving Things lesson and the Four Seasons lesson, or browse all K–2 science lessons.
Questions parents ask
What do plants need to grow?
Most plants need water, light, air and nutrients from soil. Seeds need water and warmth to start growing, but a seed does not need light until it has leaves.
How long does a bean take to sprout?
Bean seeds usually sprout in about 5 to 10 days when kept damp and warm.
Do all plants grow from seeds?
No. Most garden plants do, but some, like ferns and mosses, grow from tiny spores, and potatoes can grow new plants from their eyes.
