Photosynthesis: How a Leaf Eats Light, Wren and Sitka Nature Lesson, Grades 3-5
Leaves are not green because green is useful. They are green because green is the color the plant throws away. Almost no elementary sheet says that, and it is the sentence that makes photosynthesis make sense.
By the end of this
- Your child can explain what a leaf's green colour tells you about the sunlight it uses
Your child is ready for this if they
- Reads a short paragraph without help
- Writes a sentence in their own words
- Will go outside and look at something for five minutes
That list matters more than the age we printed on it. You know which of the two is true of your child.
A plant takes in three things: light from the sun, water from the roots, and a gas called carbon dioxide from the air. It combines them and makes sugar, which is food.
The green stuff doing the catching is called chlorophyll. It absorbs red and blue light and reflects green, which is exactly why leaves look green to you.
Oxygen comes out as a leftover. The plant does not need most of it, so it releases it. Every breath you take is a plant's spare parts.
The gas goes in and out through tiny holes on the underside of the leaf called stomata. They open and close, which lets the plant control how much water it loses.
In autumn, many trees stop making chlorophyll. The green fades and the yellows and oranges that were there the whole time finally show.
What is inside
- 01How a Leaf Eats Light — the teaching page
- 02How a Leaf Eats Light — the work page, answerable from the teaching page
- 03Take it outside: Lay a small stone or a piece of cardboard flat on a patch of grass.
Standards alignment, for a portfolio or a state filing
2 alignments. Copy what your state asks for and ignore the rest — this is here for the paperwork, not for the teaching.
| Framework | Code | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| NGSS | 5-LS1-1 | |
| NGSS | 5-PS3-1 |