Plant Life Cycle Jeopardy

Seeds, roots, flowers, and fruit: a plant life cycle review for early elementary science. Copy the board for free; kids buzz in from phones or tablets.

6 categories · 30 clues · Final Jeopardy · everyone buzzes in from their phone

For the classroom

Copies all 30 clues into an editor of your own. Free, no account needed.

Every clue on this board

This page is public, so anyone can read the answers — copy the board and swap a few clues before game day.

Seeds and Sprouting

$200
A seed needs this liquid to start growing.
What is water?
$400
This is the name for a young plant that has just sprouted from a seed.
What is a seedling?
$600
Seeds sprout best when the weather is this, not freezing cold.
What is warm?
$800
A seed stores this inside to feed the baby plant until it can make its own.
What is food?
$1,000
This big word names the moment a seed starts to sprout.
What is germination?

Roots and Stems

$200
Roots hold a plant firmly in this.
What is soil?
$400
The thick, woody stem of this tallest kind of plant is called a trunk.
What is a tree?
$600
This hard outer layer protects a tree's trunk.
What is bark?
$800
Plants like ivy have stems that do this up walls and fences.
What is climb?
$1,000
A radish or a beet grows one thick main root called this.
What is a taproot?

Leaves

$200
Most leaves are this color in spring and summer.
What is green?
$400
Leaves use sunlight, water and air to make food in this process.
What is photosynthesis?
$600
Leaves take in this gas from the air to make food.
What is carbon dioxide?
$800
This green material inside leaves catches sunlight.
What is chlorophyll?
$1,000
These tiny openings on a leaf let air in and out.
What are stomata?

Flowers and Pollinators

$200
These buzzing insects make honey and visit flowers.
What are bees?
$400
These colorful parts of a flower attract insects.
What are petals?
$600
Pollinators drink this sweet liquid from flowers.
What is nectar?
$800
This tiny bird beats its wings very fast as it sips from flowers.
What is a hummingbird?
$1,000
After a flower is pollinated, this part at its base grows into a fruit.
What is the ovary?

Fruits and Seeds

$200
This red fruit wears its seeds on the outside.
What is a strawberry?
$400
When you blow on the fluffy seed head of this yellow flower, the wind carries its seeds away.
What is a dandelion?
$600
Squirrels bury these nuts, and some grow into oak trees.
What are acorns?
$800
Some seeds have tiny hooks that stick to this on animals and get a free ride.
What is fur?
$1,000
A tomato is really one of these, because it grows from a flower and holds seeds.
What is a fruit?

Plants We Eat

$200
This orange root is a favorite snack of rabbits.
What is a carrot?
$400
When we eat asparagus spears, we are eating this part of the plant.
What is the stem?
$600
When we eat lettuce or spinach, we are eating these parts of the plant.
What are leaves?
$800
Broccoli is really a bunch of these that have not opened yet.
What are flower buds?
$1,000
Popcorn pops out of these, which are the seeds of the corn plant.
What are kernels?

Final Jeopardy — Flower Power

Bees and butterflies carry this powdery dust from flower to flower, helping plants make seeds.

What is pollen?

How to run this board

This board follows a plant from start to finish: what is inside a seed, how it germinates, what roots, stems, and leaves each do, why flowers need pollinators, and how fruit carries the next round of seeds. A final column covers the plants students actually eat, which usually starts an argument about whether a tomato is a fruit.

If your class has a bean or sunflower growing on the windowsill, bring it to the front and refer to it during the game. Asking a team to point to the stem or a leaf on a real plant is quicker than any diagram.

Play the columns left to right if you can; they follow the life cycle in order, which makes the board double as a recap of the unit.

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