How plants grow: KS1 science for parents

What it is

Flowering plant

A plant that grows flowers. Most of the plants your child will meet in KS1, from daisies to apple trees, are flowering plants.

Deciduous and evergreen

A deciduous tree loses its leaves in autumn and winter. An evergreen tree keeps its leaves all year round.

Bulb

An underground bud of a plant, resting until it's time to grow. Inside is a tiny version of the plant, with flower, leaf and root parts.

Germination

When a seed or bulb starts to grow. The roots grow down and a shoot grows up.

Most plants have four important parts, and each one has a job to do. Your child will learn to point to them and say what they are for.

• Roots hold the plant in the ground and take in water and nutrients from the soil.
• Stem holds the plant up and carries water to the leaves. A tree's trunk is like a very strong stem.
• Leaves take in sunlight and use it to make food for the plant.
• Flowers are where the plant's seeds develop. In some plants, such as apple trees, a fruit grows around the seeds.

Seeds and bulbs both carry a store of food inside them. That's what lets them start growing in the dark, under the soil, before they have any leaves.

How it's taught at school

Plants come up in both years of KS1 science. The national curriculum for England sets out what each year covers:

• Year 1: naming a variety of common wild and garden plants, including deciduous and evergreen trees, and describing the basic structure of flowering plants, including trees.
• Year 2: watching how seeds and bulbs grow into mature plants, and finding out that plants need water, light and a suitable temperature to grow and stay healthy.

The curriculum's guidance suggests children learn this outdoors, using the local area throughout the year. Many classes plant seeds or bulbs, look closely with magnifying glasses, draw and label the parts of a plant, and keep a record of how a plant changes over time.

In Year 2, your child may help set up a comparative test: for example, growing the same plant in two places, with one given light and water and the other not, and comparing what happens. The aim is to see for themselves what a plant needs.

There's one fact here that surprises many grown-ups. Seeds and bulbs need water to start growing, but most of them don't need light. Light matters once the shoot is up and the leaves need to make food.

In Year 3 this grows into the jobs of each part in more detail, and a longer list of what plants need: air, light, water, nutrients from the soil, and room to grow.

Common mistakes (and how to help)

Thinking trees aren't plants

Lots of children think of plants as small things in pots. Look at a tree together and match its parts to a flower: roots, a trunk that works like a stem, leaves, and often blossom or fruit.

Thinking a seed needs light to start growing

It's a natural guess, because grown plants do need light. Explain that a seed has its own packed lunch of food inside it, so it needs water and the right temperature to get going, but not light. Light matters once the leaves appear.

Thinking plants eat food from the soil

Roots take in water and nutrients, but the plant makes its food in its leaves, using sunlight. A simple way to say it: roots drink, leaves make food.

Mixing up seeds and bulbs

Both grow into new plants. Seeds are often small, with an outer covering called a seed coat. A bulb is usually bigger, grows underground and has a tiny version of the plant waiting inside.

Three quick activities at home

Questions parents ask

Sources

1. Department for Education: National curriculum in England: science programmes of study
2. BBC Bitesize: The parts of a plant
3. BBC Bitesize: What does a plant need to grow?
4. BBC Bitesize: The life cycle of a plant