Year 3 Science · What plants need · Summary

Year 3 Science What plants need: summary and key words

Part of the Year 3 Science what plants need chapter. Chapter overview · whole chapter on one page

Chapter summary

Skill	Method
Five needs	Air, light, water, nutrients from the soil and room to grow. Plants need all five to grow and stay healthy.
Air and light	Leaves use light, water and carbon dioxide from the air to make food. Carbon dioxide enters through tiny holes.
Water and nutrients	Roots take in water and nutrients from the soil. Nutrients help a plant to grow well, but they are not food.
Room to grow	Plants need space for their roots and leaves. Crowded plants share the light, water and nutrients.
Plants differ	A cactus needs little water, a water lily lives in water, and a sunflower needs lots of light.
Water transport	Water travels from the roots, up the stem, through tiny tubes (xylem), to the leaves. Some water leaves the leaves as vapour.
Fair tests	Change one thing, keep the rest the same, measure, show the results in a table or bar chart, and write a conclusion.

I can name the five things a plant needs: air, light, water, nutrients from the soil and room to grow
I can say what leaves use light and carbon dioxide for, and why a plant in the dark grows weakly
I can say what roots take in from the soil, and explain why nutrients are not food
I can explain why crowded plants may grow less well, and how plants differ in what they need
I can describe how water travels up the stem through tiny tubes, from the roots to the leaves
I can plan a fair test with a plant, and read a table and a bar chart of the results

need: something a living thing must have to live and grow
nutrient: a substance in the soil that a plant takes in through its roots to help it grow well; nutrients are not food
carbon dioxide: a gas in the air that leaves take in and use, with light and water, to make food
room to grow: space for the roots and leaves of a plant to spread out
vary: to be different, from one plant to another
transport: moving something from one place to another
water transport: the movement of water through a plant, from the roots, up the stem, to the leaves
xylem: the tiny tubes that carry water up through the roots, stem and leaves of a plant
water vapour: water in the form of a gas, which can leave a plant through its leaves
fair test: a test that changes only one thing and keeps everything else the same
conclusion: what the results of a test show
bar chart: a chart that uses bars of different heights to show amounts