Having learnt about what plants need to grow, our curious EY3 learners had one big question:
“When we water the plant, how does the water reach the leaves at the top?”To answer this, we explored an iGenius experiment that revealed the magic of how plants “drink” through something called capillary action.
What We Did:
Children folded a paper towel and drew bright, colourful circles in the center using markers. We then dipped the tip of the towel in a cup of water.As the children watched with excitement, something amazing began to happen—the colours started to “walk” up the paper towel, forming a beautiful growing rainbow!
What Happened:
The paper towel “drank” the water from the cups. As the water moved upward through tiny spaces in the towel, it carried the marker colours with it.This movement of water through narrow spaces is called capillary action. The same thing happens in real plants. In nature, a plant’s roots absorb water from the soil. The water then travels up the stem, reaching the leaves and flowers.
By the end of the experiment, our EY3 children discovered that just like the rainbow colours travel up the paper towel, water travels up through a plant’s stem to nourish its leaves and flowers!”
