3rd grade · Science · Unit 1 of 6
How Plants Grow & Change
Life cycles, seeds, and making food from sunlight
What your child practices
From seed to flower and back to seed, how seeds travel, how plants react to light and seasons, and how they use sunlight, water and carbon dioxide to make food and release oxygen.
Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards benchmark: 3L.1.2.1.2 · how sunlight and water affect how a plant grows
How we explain it
Children can open this short lesson before they practice.
- Life cycle: seed, sprout, seedling, flowering plant, new seeds.
- Seeds travel by wind, water and animals, like burrs stuck in fur.
- Plants take in carbon dioxide and give off oxygen, which we breathe.
Example: Fluffy seeds float away on a breeze. How do they travel? Fluff catches moving air. They travel by wind. Answer: by wind
How Plants Grow & Change in Minnesota
In the Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards, this is unit 1 of 6 in 3rd grade Science, before Basic Needs & Life Cycles.
Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.
Sample questions
A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.
Question 1
Most plants make their food using energy from…
☀️- the rain
- the Moon
- the soil
- the Sun
the Sun
Hint: Plants use sunlight to make food. This is called photosynthesis.
Question 2
Squirrels bury acorns and forget some. What can happen?
🐿️- nothing can ever happen
- the acorns turn into mushrooms
- some acorns grow into oak trees
- the squirrels grow roots
some acorns grow into oak trees
Hint: A buried acorn with water and warmth can germinate.
Question 3
Why do maple trees drop their leaves in the fall?
🍁- to make new roots
- because they are sick
- to get ready for winter
- because the Moon is full
to get ready for winter
Hint: Leaves would freeze and cannot make food in winter, so the tree rests until spring.
Question 4
During photosynthesis, what does a plant do?
🌳- takes in oxygen and releases carbon dioxide
- takes in carbon dioxide and releases oxygen
- takes in nectar and releases pollen
- takes in soil and releases water
takes in carbon dioxide and releases oxygen
Hint: Plants use sunlight, water and carbon dioxide to make food, and release oxygen.
Question 5
Put the life cycle of a bean plant in order. Tap the first stage first.
- 🌱seed sprouts
- 🌿seedling with leaves
- 🌼plant with flowers
- 🫘pods with new seeds
- 🌰seed
seed → seed sprouts → seedling with leaves → plant with flowers → pods with new seeds
Hint: A seed sprouts into a seedling, grows leaves, flowers, and makes new seeds.
Question 6
Chlorophyll gives leaves their green color. What else does it do?
🍃- helps the leaf capture sunlight
- makes the leaf smell sweet
- stops the leaf from falling
- pulls water up from the roots
helps the leaf capture sunlight
Hint: Chlorophyll catches sunlight so the plant can make food.