Video narration
How does a plant get food if it never goes shopping? Think of a green plant as its own tiny kitchen—not a human kitchen, but a comparison. Water comes up through the roots, and carbon dioxide enters from the air through the leaves. Inside green parts, chlorophyll captures sunlight. But sunlight is not the food. It is the energy that powers the kitchen. That energy helps combine the ingredients: water and carbon dioxide become sugar, the food the plant stores and uses. This food-making process is called photosynthesis. And there is a result left over: oxygen, released into the air. So the leaf is not absorbing sunlight as food, and soil is not a ready-made meal. It is running a recipe, powered by light, turning ingredients into plant-made food. It makes its own food: sunlight powers water and carbon dioxide into sugar, while oxygen escapes.