Growing Things - Structure of Plants

Summary
The reading introduces the children to the bean plant and describes its structure and how it grows. This should be done as part of a class discussion, preferably with visual aids in the form of water soaked beans.

Objectives
• The children will be able to identify the structure of a bean plant, including seeds, roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and pods.

• The children will be able to explain how a plant grows from a seed.

Suggested Grades
1st Grade
2nd Grade
3rd Grade

Excerpt
Most growing things start from a seed. A bean
is a seed which forms in a pod. If you open a
bean and look very carefully, you will see the
baby plant, called the embryo, inside. The two halves of the bean, called the cotyledons, provide food for the baby plant. On the outside of the bean is the tough seed coat. When you water the bean the seed coat will swell and the seed will burst open.

Continued...