How does photosynthesis actually work inside a plant?

Photosynthesis is how plants make their own food using sunlight, water, and air.

Imagine a plant is like a chef who makes cookies in the kitchen, but instead of using flour and sugar, it uses sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide from the air to make sugar (its food) and oxygen (which we breathe).

The plant has little green factories called chloroplasts in its leaves. These are like tiny kitchens where photosynthesis happens. The green pigment, called chlorophyll, is the chef who catches the sunlight, just like how you catch light when you read a book in a sunny room.

The plant drinks water from the soil through its roots, and it takes in carbon dioxide (which we exhale) through tiny holes on its leaves called stomata. These are like the ingredients going into the kitchen.

Then, inside the chloroplasts, sunlight helps turn water and carbon dioxide into sugar and oxygen, just like a recipe that makes something delicious and gives off air as a byproduct!