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What Do Plants Need to Grow?

8 free PDFsUS Letter or A4Answer key includedNo login

Sun, water, air and soil: a what plants need chart and label page, a circle page, plants and animals, a read-aloud story and two experiments.

Download the what plants need worksheets

What plants need

Plants and animals

Plant experiments

Print at 100% (actual size) for the cleanest tracing lines.

About these what plants need worksheets

Plants are living things, and like all living things they need some things to survive. These what plants need worksheets teach four needs a kindergartner can see: sun, water, air and soil. The chart shows a growing bean plant with a picture of each need around it.

Children label the four needs from a word bank, circle what a plant needs among everyday things, and compare plants with animals: both need water and air, animals eat food, and plants use sunlight to make their own food. A short read-aloud story about a bean plant checks listening.

Two experiment pages let children test the ideas for themselves: a plant in the sun and one in the dark, and a plant with water and one without.

Standards

  • NGSS K-LS1-1Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.
  • NGSS K-ESS3-1Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants or animals (including humans) and the places they live.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.K.2Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic.

How to use them

  1. Start with the chart and name the four needs together.
  2. Use the label it and circle pages as a quick check.
  3. Set up the sun or dark experiment with two plants the same size, and water both the same amount.
  4. Talk about the plants and animals page: what do both need, and what is different?

Teaching tips

  • Plants do not eat food the way animals do. Their leaves use sunlight, air and water to make their own food.
  • Most plants grow in soil, where their roots find water. Some plants can grow in water alone.
  • A plant kept in the dark often grows tall, pale and floppy as it stretches for light.
  • Too much water can hurt a plant too. Water when the soil feels dry.

Questions teachers and parents ask

What do plants need to grow?

Most plants need sunlight, water, air and soil, which gives their roots a place to grow and water to drink. They also need room to grow.

How are plant needs different from animal needs?

Plants and animals both need water and air. Animals need to eat food. Plants make their own food in their leaves using sunlight.

Do the worksheets include answers?

Yes. The label it, circle, plants and animals and read-aloud pages each have an answer key on page 2.