Bake a one-layer, white rectangular-shaped cake. Frost with icing tinted green to represent the cell's cytoplasm. Decorate the cake with a variety of candies to represent the organelles, or parts, of the plant cell. For example, use a jawbreaker or large gum ball to represent the nucleus. Use green jelly beans to show the chloroplasts. Use a variety of edible three-dimensional objects to represent the vacuole, mitochondria, cytoplasm, amlyoplast, centrosome, rough endoplasmic reticulum and smooth endoplasmic reticulum. Place rolled fondant or pipe a border of icing around the outside edge of the cake to represent the cell wall. Write or type the names of plant cell parts on slips of paper, attach to toothpicks and insert into the cake in the appropriate places.
Make lime gelatin using about one-fourth less water than the package instructions call for to make it stiffer. Put a 1-gallon resealable bag into a bowl to make pouring easier, and pour the gelatin into the bag. Put the bag of gelatin into the refrigerator until it is almost set. Add edible plant cell parts such as raisins, gummy worms and other candies. Finish letting the gelatin set and then make a key on a sheet of paper showing which organelle each edible piece represents.
Use a large piece of green cotton fabric for the background of the cell. Cut different-colored felt shapes to represent the different parts of the plant cell and glue on the green material with fabric glue. Cut a piece of heavyweight vinyl exactly the same size as the green fabric. With a green marker, draw chloroplasts along the outside edge of the vinyl. Cover the green fabric and sew or glue it together, leaving gaps. The gaps represent the semi-permeability of the cell. Students can make shapes to represent oxygen, water and carbon dioxide and move these through the openings. This versatile mat could be made large and used for collaborative work or small and used for individual work at desks. A lesson plan for this can be found at the National Science Teachers Association (science.nsta.org) website.
Insert one resealable gallon plastic bag into another one for extra reinforcement. Fill the bag with mild green dish washing detergent to represent cytoplasm. Add non-edible objects such as buttons and pipe cleaners to represent the plant cell organelles. Use a piece of paper to make a key to show what each of the objects stands for in the soap cell.