Plants are amazing! Especially when we look at their life cycle, from first growth to reproduction.
It all starts with a seed that cracks open and starts to grow when it has the right amount of water, warmth and nutrients in the soil. That's called germination. And this is where the growing process begins. The new shoots and leaves are green because of the chemicals within the plant. Those chemicals work with sunlight to produce the food that the plant needs to grow.
Next, the plant produces flowers with stigma and stamen. These help the flowers to reproduce.
Insects are also important. They move pollen around from one plant to another, helping the flower to form new seeds.
Nature has some clever ways to make sure that seeds are carried far away from the mother plant, giving them a better chance to grow and spread.
These birds will carry seeds with them when they fly away and the seeds from berries, eaten whole, will come out in the birds' poo, giving them their very own fertiliser!
And as flowers like this one die, the seeds are released and carried by the wind. Oh, look! They even have a little parachute to help them fly and land gently.
When they settle on the ground, the seeds will crack open and germination can start all over again. Now that is smart.
Video summary
This short film explains how plants change over time, as well as the clever ways they reproduce.
It explores common plant life cycles, showing how a seed becomes a plant and how new seeds are made.
It looks at life cycle stages, explaining how plants change and develop as they move through their life cycle.
Teacher Notes
This short film is an ideal tool to help pupils to explore what a plant life cycle is and how these change over the course of a plants life.
From this film, pupils can explore and develop their own investigations into plant life cycle ideas to show different environmental factors, such as warmth, light and water, can impact on an plants ability to grow and reproduce.
Pupils can also use the film as a discussion tool to explore what changes in plants over time and why they think this happens.
Points for discussion:
· What is a life cycle?
· Can you describe the life cycle of a plant?
· How are seeds made?
· What happens to a plant if you give it too much water?
· What happens to a plant if it has no light?
· What happens to a plant if it is in too cold an environment?
Suggested activities:
Pupils could carry out investigations, making predictions as to how they think plant life cycles change based on environmental factors.
Pupils can predict and then investigate how water, light and temperature all impact on plant growth throughout the life cycle.
Can pupils compare the life cycle of a plant to their own life cycle and how these are similar and different?
Pupils can develop life cycle sketches or diagrams to help them to explore this further.
This short film is relevant for teaching science at KS1 in England and Wales, Foundation and KS1 in Northern Ireland and Early and 1st Level in Scotland.
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