Living Things Around Us
Primary 1 · Science and Elementary Technology
Living Things Around Us
Lesson 1 of 3
12 min
Let's begin
Keza walks to school every morning. She passes a big banana plant with wide green leaves. Next to it grows a small bean plant, no taller than her knee.
The banana is a plant. The bean is a plant too. Today you will learn the parts of a plant, and you will find plants near your own home.
Look at the tree in your school yard. It was there yesterday. It is there today. It will be there tomorrow.
A plant cannot walk away. It grows in one place and stays there. A goat can walk away. A plant cannot. That is one way you can tell a plant from an animal.
Pull a small weed out of the ground. Shake off the soil. Now look at it slowly, from the bottom to the top.
At the very bottom are thin brown strings. Those are the roots. They grow down into the soil.
The roots do two jobs:
When you pull a weed and it is hard to pull, that is the roots holding on.
Above the soil is a stalk that stands up straight. That is the stem.
The stem holds the plant up, the way your legs hold you up. It also carries the water from the roots up to the leaves.
On a bean plant, the stem is thin and green. On a big tree, the stem is thick and hard. We call that thick stem a trunk.
The flat green parts are the leaves. A banana leaf is very big. A bean leaf is small. Both are leaves.
Leaves have a special job. They make food for the plant. To do it, they use sunlight. That is why leaves grow up high, where the sun can touch them.
A plant does not walk to the market to buy food. Its own leaves make its food.
Many plants grow a flower. Flowers are often bright, so you can see them from far away.
The flower makes seeds. Watch a bean plant. First a small white flower comes. Then the flower falls off, and a green bean pod grows in that same place. Open the pod. Inside are beans. Those beans are the seeds.
Push one bean seed into wet soil and wait a few days.
First small roots grow down. Then a green shoot pushes up out of the soil. Then leaves open on the shoot. Now you have a new bean plant!
One little seed can make a whole new plant. That is how a farmer fills a whole field.
At home you may find bananas, beans, maize, cassava, sweet potato, an avocado tree, and grass in the yard.
At school you may find a tall tree for shade, flowers in the flower bed, a hedge by the gate, and grass on the football field.
All of these are plants. All of them have roots, a stem and leaves.
Tip
Climb the plant with your finger, from the ground up: roots, then stem, then leaves, then flower.
And say the jobs out loud: roots drink, stem stands, leaves cook, flower makes seeds.
Try each one first, then tap Show answer to check.
Which part of the plant drinks water from the soil?
Answer: the roots.
Uwase's bean plant fell over in the wind. Which part is supposed to hold the plant up?
Answer: the stem.
Where does a plant make its food, and what does it use?
Answer: in its leaves, using sunlight.
Mugisha opens a bean pod. Inside he finds small beans. What are those beans?
Answer: they are seeds. Plant one and a new bean plant will grow.
Look outside and name two plants you can see.
Answer: many answers are right. Grass is a plant. A flower in the flower bed is a plant. A big tree is a plant too.
Note
What you learned today:
Quick check
Match each plant part to its job.
Tap one on the left, then its partner on the right.
