Root Vegetables Tops and Bottoms Vegetable Flip Book

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Have you ever stopped to think about which parts of a vegetable grow above the ground and which grow below it?

This printable Tops and Bottoms Vegetable Flip Book is a simple hands-on activity that helps kids explore how vegetables grow while practicing matching, observation, and visual discrimination.

It was inspired by the picture book Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens, one of our favorite books to pair with a garden or plant science lesson.

Tops and Bottoms Book Activity

If you haven’t read Tops and Bottoms, it’s a clever story about a hardworking rabbit and a rather lazy bear who go into the farming business together.

Bear gets to choose which part of the harvest he wants—the tops or the bottoms. Unfortunately for Bear, Rabbit knows exactly which vegetables to plant!

The story is funny, but it also opens the door to some great conversations about plants, gardening, and the different parts of plants that we eat.

After reading the story, use this printable flip book to explore some vegetables that grow partly or mostly underground.

 

What’s in the Root Vegetable Flip Book?

The printable includes six vegetables:

• Turnip
• Carrot
• Radish
• Onion
• Garlic
• Beet

Each vegetable is divided into a top and bottom, creating a mix-and-match flip book.

Carrots, radishes, turnips, and beets have enlarged roots that we eat. Onions and garlic are a little different—the part we eat is a bulb, an underground plant structure made primarily from modified leaves.

That’s a fun distinction to introduce to older children while younger kids can simply focus on identifying and matching the vegetables.

How to Assemble the Tops and Bottoms Flip Book

Print and cut out all of the vegetable pieces. The printable also includes a title page and back cover to hold the book together.

Hole punch the pieces and attach them with two binder rings.

Here’s the fun part: mix them up!

Don’t put all the matching tops and bottoms together when you assemble the book. Kids can flip the top and bottom sections independently to create some very silly vegetables before finding the correct matches.

Can you make a carrot top with an onion bottom? What about a beet with garlic leaves?

Then challenge kids to match all six vegetables correctly.

The front of the book includes a picture reference to help if they get stuck. Some of those leafy tops can be surprisingly tricky!

Learn About Vegetables That Grow Underground

Once kids have matched the root vegetables, take the activity a little further.

Talk about where each edible part grows. Ask kids to compare the vegetables and notice their similarities and differences.

You might ask:

• Which parts grow underground?
• What does the leafy part of the plant do?
• Which vegetables have roots that we eat?
• Which ones are bulbs?
• What other vegetables can you think of that grow underground?

If you have a garden, this is especially fun to do before planting or harvesting your own vegetables.

You could even bring in a few real carrots, radishes, onions, or beets and compare them with the pictures in the flip book.

Garden Science for Kids

This simple activity can fit into several different learning themes, including:

• Plant parts
• Garden science
• How food grows
• Above-ground and below-ground plant parts
• Vegetable identification
• Spring and summer gardening
• Book-based learning

For preschoolers, focus primarily on matching, naming the vegetables, and learning where they grow.

With elementary-age children, you can dig deeper into plant structures and discuss the difference between roots, bulbs, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds that we eat.

Suddenly a very cute flip book becomes a little botany lesson!

Get the Root Vegetables Tops and Bottoms Flip Book

Ready to mix and match your own garden?

The printable Root Vegetables Tops and Bottoms Flip Book includes six different vegetables divided into interchangeable top and bottom pieces. Kids can create silly combinations and then challenge themselves to find the correct matches.

Pair it with Tops and Bottoms for an easy hands-on book activity, or use it on its own as part of a garden or plant science unit.

 

More Garden Activities for Kids

If you’re learning about plants and gardening, try some of these activities next:

100 Book Activities for Kids

Spring Preschool Math- Carrot Garden Counting Mats

Garden Themed Spelling Word Mats

Clay Stamped Garden Markers

Mix & Match Edible Plant Parts Activity for Kids