How a Seed Wakes Up: teacher key

How Plants Grow, grade 4 edition, written for 4th grade. A seed can wait a long time. Then water, warmth and air wake it up, and the plant learns to drink, eat and make seeds of its own.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What happens to a dry seed when it gets water?
   • It soaks up the water and swells (answer)
   • It turns into a flower
   • It gives off pollen
2. Why can soaking the soil too much hurt a seed?
   • It makes the seed too warm
   • The seed may not get enough oxygen (answer)
   • It stops the wind
3. What does a plant use to make sugar?
   • Soil, wind and pollen
   • Roots, fur and rain
   • Sunlight, water and carbon dioxide (answer)
4. What does the word transpiration mean?
   • A plant lets water vapor go from its leaves (answer)
   • A seed grows a root
   • A bee carries pollen
5. How does a burr travel?
   • It floats on the sea
   • It has wings
   • It sticks to animal fur (answer)

Words

• pollination: moving pollen
• chlorophyll: green plant stuff
• transpiration: plant water loss
• oxygen: gas we breathe