Simple Photosynthesis Activities

Updated November 22, 2019

By Jennifer Moore

Photosynthesis is the process by which plants use sunlight to produce energy. The
process can be a challenging topic, difficult to teach, unless visual activities are used.
Visual activities show children the way photosynthesis works. These projects can vary
from the simplest drawing activity to a full science experiment in which growing plants
are used. These activities can be used in the classroom environment, but are simple
enough to do at home too.

Drawing Activity

Start by getting the students to draw a flower on a piece of paper. Ask them to
continue their drawing by adding the sun, water, soil and rain. Next, get them to write
carbon dioxide and draw an arrow towards the flower. On the opposite side, write the
word oxygen and draw another arrow, but away from the flower this time. At the
bottom of the plant, draw a sugar cube. Make sure to explain the process of
photosynthesis as they are drawing as they go along.

Sunlight Experiment

Give each student two paper cups with a quick growing plant potted inside. Ask them
to place one cup in a dark room and the other in the sunlight on a windowsill. Each
child needs to water both flowers throughout the week. After a week has passed, get
the children to bring over both their plants and ask them to evaluate the two. Explain
that the plant had a sunlight deficiency while in the dark room so therefore
photosynthesis wasn’t possible and as a result the plant looks limp and is dying.

Chlorophyl Experiment

Have the students place a healthy, growing, leafy plant by the window for several
days. Get the students to take construction paper and tape it over some of the leaves.
Then after several days, get the students to remove the tape. The leaves covered in
tape will be darker. Chlorophyll is what gives leaves their color and without sunlight,
the leaves will lose that color.

Photosynthesis Chemical Experiment

Purchase some small plants and get your students to put them in test tubes filled with
water. Plug the opening of the test tubes. During the next little while, bubbles will
appear on the sides of the test tubes. This is a photosynthesis chemical response that
shows plants changing carbon dioxide and water into food.
Photosynthesis Activity: Leaf with "in" and "out" envelopes on front and back. Students
sort the cards into the correct envelope. Water, sunlight and carbon dioxide go IN to the
leaves while sugar and oxygen are products of photosynthesis so they go OUT.

Photos

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