Photosynthesis
Most plants are really lucky - they don't have to go out shopping for their food or spend time cooking it. They just sit around in our gardens waiting for sunshine and then they make their food themselves.

Plants
They use the sunlight and the green in their leaves to make sugars from carbon dioxide (which they breathe in through their leaves during the day) and water. This sugar is then used to give the plant energy so that it can grow. This process is called photosynthesis and is the most important process on the planet, as many other plants and animals depend on plants to survive. Most of the energy is used to make new plant material, although some of it is stored by the plant for use during the months when there is less sunlight.

During the night, plants breathe in oxygen. This is called respiration. The plant also needs minerals to grow, which the plant takes from the soil where they are dissolved in water. The plant releases any water that it doesn't need into the air through its leaves. This is called transpiration.
Plants are the only living organisms that can make their own food. This is one of the main ways of deciding if something is a plant.