We’ve gone over how our amazing planet supports an almost impossible array of different life in our BIODIVERSITY lesson (click here) ….

And we’ve gone over how Nature feeds itself in our FOODCHAINS lesson (click here)…

And now, we are going to go over how the Foodchain starts, which is HOW PLANTS MAKE THEIR OWN FOOD...

PHOTOSYNTHESIS

Imagine plants as little factories that need food to grow big and strong. Photosynthesis is like their special cooking process for making their own food.

Chlorophyll is the chemical that makes plants GREEN!

Here’s how it works:

1. Sunlight: Just like we need sunlight to see, plants need it too, but they use it in a special way. They use the sunlight to make their food.
2. Carbon Dioxide (CO2): You know how we breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide? Well, plants do the opposite. They take in carbon dioxide from the air through tiny holes in their leaves and then “exhale” the oxygen that we need. Plants and people really are dependent on each other and designed to live side by side!
3. Water: Plants also need water to stay hydrated and healthy. They absorb water from the soil through their roots.
4. Chlorophyll: Inside the leaves of plants, there’s a special green stuff called chlorophyll. This is their baseline cooking ingredient that helps them make their own food. It’s what makes plants green!

(In the winter when the SUN is not as strong, plants cannot make as much CHLOROPHYLL. So when the leaves “change color” in the winter, it is NOT the leaves turning red or yellow…its simply that the plant isn’t making green chlorophyll so we can see the other colors that are always in the leaves.)

Now, here comes the magic part:

5. Photosynthesis: Plants mix all these things together. With the help of sunlight and chlorophyll, they combine carbon dioxide from the air and water from the soil to make a special kind of sugar called GLUCOSE. This sugar is their food!
6. Oxygen: As a bonus, when plants make their food, they also release oxygen into the air. That’s the same oxygen we breathe!

So, in a nutshell, photosynthesis is how plants make their food using sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide. It’s like their own special recipe for survival! And we love plants because they give us OXYGEN that we need to live!!

Try these Boardgames I found on Amazon about PHOTOSYNTHESIS.

This one won all the awards when it was released and looks great!

Watch this fun short video on

PHOTOSYNTHESIS!