الأسبوع 1 · المحور الأول «الأنظمة»، الوحدة الأولى «العلاقات الغذائية بين الكائنات الحية»: ابدأ، المفهوم 1.1 «احتياجات النبات» (أ): ما تحتاجه النباتات لتنمو · 3 دروس
1
What plants need to live
Discovery Education Science P5: Term 1, Unit 1, pp. 1–10
GoalName what a plant needs to grow and stay healthy, and decide which things are basic needs.
New words
plant · a living thing that makes its own food and usually stays in one placenutrients · useful materials, such as minerals, that help living things growsurvive · to stay alive
Explanation
A plant is a living thing, so it has needs. Like you, it needs water and air to stay alive. Unlike you, it does not eat. A plant makes its own food, and for that it needs light. These three are the basic needs: water, air and light. A plant also takes in small amounts of nutrients from the soil, dissolved in water. A newly planted tree in a school yard shows this well. It needs watering every few days, a place where sunshine reaches it, and room for its leaves in the air. Sugar is not on the list, because the plant makes its own. A forest is not on the list either: a single plant can live in a pot on a balcony.
Item
A basic need of a plant?
Water
yes
Air
yes
Light
yes
Sugar
no: the plant makes its own
A forest
no: one plant can live alone
Worked examples
Mariam waters the mint plant on her balcony in Alexandria every morning and turns the pot to face the sun. She is giving it two of its basic needs: water and light. The air is free.
The school plants a young palm in the yard. Youssef’s class waters it twice a week and keeps a clear space around it so the leaves can reach the light and air.
Plants and people share some needs and differ in others. Both need water and air, but a plant makes its own food from light, while a person must eat.
Class activity
Needs checklist. With a grown-up, find one plant at home, at school or in the street. Write where it grows, how it gets water, how it gets light and one thing that could go wrong. Then sort these five cards into “basic need” and “not a basic need”: water, sugar, light, air, a forest.
Practice
1
Name the three basic needs of a plant.
Water, air and light.
2
Which pictures show basic needs of a plant? Say the letters.
A, B and D: water, light and air. The television is not a need.
3
Why is sugar not on the list of basic needs?
Because the plant makes its own food, so it does not have to be given sugar.
4
Write one way plants and people are alike and one way they are different in what they need.
Alike: both need water and air. Different: a plant needs light to make its food; a person needs to eat food.
