How do plants make their food?

What color are the leaves of a lettuce? 
What color are the needles of a pine tree? 
What color are the leaves of grasses and most garden plants? 
The leaves of all these plants are green. 
Do you know why?
Unlike animals that have to eat green plants or other living things to stay alive, plants are able to make their own food.
All living things are made up of cells, but plant cells are different from animal cells.
The cells in the leaves of most plants contain tiny green parts called chloroplasts. 
Each chloroplast contains the chemical called chlorophyll that makes the leaves green.
The chloroplasts use sunlight, carbon dioxide and water to make food for the plant.

The process by which a plant makes its own food using sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide is called photosynthesis. 

Sunlight shines into a leaf through its outer cells, which are clear like glass.
The water comes from the soil, through the roots and the stem, and into the leaf.
The air gets into the leaf through tiny holes called stomata.
Inside the leaf, the chloroplasts use the sunlight as energy.
This energy helps to make sugars by combining water with the carbon dioxide that's found in the air.
The sugars are then turned into a substance called starch.
Grains of starch are stored in the cells of the leaf until the plant needs them for food.
During the process called photosynthesis, the chloroplasts inside the leaves of a plant use sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water to make food.