Living Root Garden School • Plants & How They Grow • Name: ______________________
🔍 The Case
The case of the plant that is half underground — a weed came up with more root than top. What is the hidden half doing down there?
Roots come in two styles. A taproot is one thick main root diving straight down, with smaller side roots branching off — a carrot is one, and so is a dandelion. Fibrous roots are a big fluffy bunch of thin roots spreading out in every direction, all roughly the same size, like an underground wig — grasses, corn, and onions grow those.
Roots do three jobs at once: anchor, holding the plant upright when the wind tries to start something; absorb, drinking water and nutrients from the soil; and store, saving extra food for later — a carrot IS a root that decided to become a pantry.
Look close at the fuzzy zone just behind the root tip: those are root hairs, tiny straws that do most of the drinking. One rye plant grew about 14 billion of them — more hairs means more soil touched, and more drinking.
Rule out the lookalikes: a thick stem is not a root — roots grow down and never sprout leaves. And the root grows from its tip, which wears a root cap, a little helmet of tough cells that takes the beating so the growing cells behind it stay safe.
Ask: If you pull a dandelion and a tuft of grass, which one will have one long root diving down — and which one will hold the soil together like a net? Write your guess before you dig.
Try: Pull one weed and one tuft of grass (with a grown-up's okay), shake the soil off gently, and lay both roots side by side. Measure the longest root on each with a ruler and write the numbers down.
Stretch (Teens & Growers ready for more): Harvest one plant and measure its roots against its shoots — length or weight, your pick — then work out where that plant put its energy: down in storage, or up in leaves?
Tell: Fill in the log below — date, what you pulled, the longest root on each — then finish this sentence in words or a labeled drawing: “The ___ root grew ___ because ___.”
Date
What I saw
What surprised me
Date: ____/____/____
Date: ____/____/____
Date: ____/____/____
Date: ____/____/____
🛠️ Build It
Draw both roots side by side — taproot and fibrous — with a ruler drawn in for scale.
🗣️ Be the Teacher
Show someone a carrot and a tuft of grass and tell them which root is which, and what each one is good at — in your own words.
🏅 I can…
☐ I can tell a taproot from fibrous roots.
Portfolio check
☐ Guide read
☐ Case solved
☐ Ask, Try, Tell done
☐ Build It filed: Root sketches + measurements
☐ Taught someone
☐ Badge earned: I can tell a taproot from fibrous roots.
Living Root Garden School • livingrootgarden.com/homeschool/ • Free — print as many copies as you like. File this sheet with your portfolio log. Sprouts do the Read, the Case, and Build It; Growers try the Ask, Try, Tell stretch when ready; Teens do the whole packet — including teaching it back.