Chandler, plants breathe carbon dioxide through little pores on their bodies called stomata. The carbon dioxide is sent to their energy making centers, called chloroplasts. They also take water from the soil through their roots. In the plant cells, carbon dioxide and water combine to create oxygen and glucose. The plants don’t need oxygen, so they let it go, so we can breathe it! The glucose is kind of like sugar, and plants use it for food. Sunlight is important because it provides the energy the plant needs to stick carbon dioxide and water together.

Sunlight gives plants energy - actual tiny packets of energy to jump-start reactions between very small particles inside the plant. These reactions help plants make other small particles they need to breathe (in the case of plants needing carbon dioxide or other gases), to eat (absorb and break down nutrients to make other things), and to expel waste (funnel products of their "eating" and "breathing" out of themselves).

Many of the small particles made with the help of sunlight make up parts of the plant stalk and leaves, and by accumulating more cells in its stalk and leaves, a plant grows taller, larger, and more mature.

Sugar contains energy. You burn sugar to power your body's functions. You get the sugar you burn from the food you eat, or by breaking down proteins and fats in the foods. Plants don't eat foods that contain enough sugar or energy to live. So, in order to get energy, they take it from sunlight. They have a chemical called chlorophyll in their leaves (it's the same chemical that gives plants their green color), and this chemical is able to take energy from sunlight, much like the chemicals in your eyes that collect light that you use to see. Unlike your eyes, a plant's leaves use the sun's energy to create sugar, which the plant then uses to build itself and to live on during the night when there is no sunlight.