Break down the work photosynthesis into its parts. Explain that photo means light and synthesis means to put things together, so plants use light to create food by putting various nutrients together or synthesizing then.
Explain chloroplasts as a plant cell’s food production chef. The plant’s leaves act like the kitchen, providing a place for the chloroplasts to work. Production of plant sugar, the recipe, occurs in the stroma, the space inside the chloroplast that surrounds the thylakoids. Thylakoids provide space for chlorophyll molecules to absorb sunlight and synthesize the water and carbon dioxide in the stroma to make glucose and starches. Use or create a diagram of the leaf cells and the interior of the chloroplast so the student understands the basic structures that produce photosynthesis
Describe the sunlight as the energy that powers the process, just as electricity or gas powers the range in your home kitchen. The leaves trap the energy from the sun into plant cells. Explain that the roots absorb water from the ground and send it up to the leaves through the xylem. Stomata absorb carbon dioxide from the air and deliver it to the plant cells containing the chloroplasts.
Diagram molecules of water as one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms. Diagram carbon dioxide molecules as two atoms of oxygen and one atom of carbon. Break six molecules of water and six molecules of carbon dioxide apart and recombine them into one glucose molecule using 12 hydrogen atoms, six oxygen atoms and six carbon atoms. Explain that the excess oxygen is released into the air by the leaf so that animals and humans can breathe.
Chart the glucose molecule as the primary ingredient for the plant to produce starches, proteins and oils. The plant determines how much of each of the three substances it needs and produces it in the perfect ratio for plant survival.