What Plants Need to Grow

Ten small cards fill this kindergarten page in five rows of two. Every card shows the same seedling in a pot in the middle, with an arrow pointing in from each side and a picture at the end of each arrow. Some plants get a smiling sun and a drop of water. Others get only one of them, paired with something a plant does not need: a toy train, a green car, a toy robot or a glove. One plant on the sheet shown gets neither, just a shoe and a pencil. In each row the child circles the plant that gets both things it needs.

Plants need light and water to grow, and kindergarten science asks children to notice that from what they see. This page turns the idea into a quick yes or no: look at the two arrows, check each picture, and only circle the plant that has both. The distractors are everyday objects, so the choice is never between two plant needs, only between a need and a thing. In every row exactly one plant has sun and water, and it sits sometimes on the left and sometimes on the right.

One sheet, five rows, five circles. Each row sits in its own framed band with the two cards side by side, so point along the first band with the class before they start to show how the pairs work. Planting beans in two cups, one on the windowsill and one in a cupboard, turns the page into an experiment children remember. In NGSS terms it supports K-LS1-1. The seed-to-plant face shows what those needs make possible.