Why do we need plants?

How are your baby plants doing?
My bean seeds in my "Window Terrarium" (the ziplock bag) have finally begun to grow roots!
Here they are in the ziplock:

Here is a closeup of one seed. I can see the seed with a crack in it.  I see a little white root coming out of the seed. The part of the root beside the seed is light green. When we are observing something, we try to say as much as we can about it.

So, why do we need plants, anyway?
We learned last week what plants need to stay alive. But why are plants important?
Plants are very important for the planet and for all living things. Plants release oxygen from their leaves, which animals (including humans) need to breathe. Animals (including humans!) need plants to help us live. Animals eat plants and live in plants. Plants help clean the water too!

What plants do animals live in? 
Where do the birds live? (Where do they build their nests?)Why do you think the birds live there?
Where do squirrels live?
Where do people live? 

Animals, including humans, eat plants. What parts of the plants do we eat? Lets find out!

Read along to Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens. 

Rabbit was very clever, wasn't he? He knew which parts of the plant we usually eat, and what parts we usually put in the compost. 

Bear and Rabbit were selling their crops so animals could buy and eat them. 

The bottoms in the story were carrots, radishes and beets. These are all roots. Can you think of any other roots that we eat?

The tops in the story were:
lettuce  which is a leaf! What other leaves do we eat?
broccoli, which are flowers and buds! What other flowers or buds do we eat? 
celery, which is the stem of the plant! 

The middles in the story were corn, which is a fruit which contains a seed (in the corn it is combined so we eat both together). What other fruit do you eat? What other seeds do you eat?

If you have any flyers (are stores still delivering flyers?) you can cut out some different produce and sort them into leaf, flower, stem, root, fruit or seed!
 
Think about the plants that you have eaten in the last few days. What plants did you eat? Were they tops or bottoms or in the middle? What parts of plants do you like to eat best? The tops, bottoms or middles? Why?

I asked lots of questions today! Can you draw or write your answer to one of the questions? (Maybe have a parent write the question at the top of the page so you can read it!)