Plant Tops and Bottoms

Adapted from Oklahoma Agriculture in the Classroom’s Plant Parts We Eat and the Illinois Agriculture in the Classroom Specialty Crops Ag Mag

Objectives

Students will identify and describe the major parts of plants we eat: roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and fruits.
Students will learn that vegetables are part of a healthy diet.
Students will identify where fruits and vegetables belong on a MyPlate diagram.

STEAM Connections & Kentucky Academic Standards

NGSS

Life Sciences - Growth and Development of Organisms, Structure and Function - 1-LS1-1, 4-LS1-1
Physical Sciences - Structures and Properties of Matter - 2-PS1-1

Nutrition

ELA

Reading - Tops & Bottoms by Janet Stevens

Background

Many foods we eat are plants. Plant-based foods provide essential nutrients including many vitamins and minerals. These plant foods can be an excellent teaching tool for understanding the external parts of a plant —roots, stems, leaves, fruits, and flowers. Farmers grow and harvest many plant-based foods such as carrots, green beans, kale, sweet potatoes, and strawberries, which are part of a healthy diet.

Vocabulary

Flowers: allow the plant to reproduce by producing seeds; edible examples include broccoli, cauliflower.

Fruit: hold the seeds of a plant; examples include eggplant, tomatoes, pumpkins, squash, cucumbers.

Leaves: soak up the sun’s energy and produce food for the plant; examples include lettuce, cabbage, spinach, mustard greens, kale.

Roots: absorb water and anchor the plant; examples include radishes, beets, carrots, parsnips. FYI: a potato is actually a modified stem, not a root.

Stems: transport water and food throughout the plant; examples include asparagus, celery.

Materials

Variety of produce items that are roots (carrots or beets), stems (asparagus or celery), leaves (lettuce or cabbage), flowers (broccoli or cauliflower), and fruits.
If actual produce is not available, use pictures
Book - Tops & Bottoms by Janet Stevens
2 Paper fasteners per student
Hole punch
2 White paper plates per student
Colored pencils
Scissors

Introduction

Collect a variety of produce that represents different parts of the plant. See materials list.
Display these vegetables and fruits and ask the following questions:
Where have you seen these items before? grocery store, farmers market, gardens, fields
What fruits and vegetables are your favorite to eat? answers will vary

Activity 1—Plants = Fruits and Vegetables

Display the vegetables and fruits. Emphasize that these fruits and vegetables are grown and harvested by farmers.
Inform students that vegetables and fruits are plants. Draw or show a picture of the common parts of a plant.
Help students understand the major purpose of each part:
- Roots – absorbs water and nutrients, anchors plant, transports nutrients, and stores food
- Stem – transports water and food
- Leaves – soaks up the sun’s energy, makes food
- Flower – produces seeds
- Fruit – holds seeds
Go back to your display of vegetables and fruits. Ask for student volunteers or call on students to identify which part of the plant each vegetable or fruit represents. (Example: lettuce is a leaf, beets are roots, etc). Sort the vegetables and fruits into the five clear containers labeled with the major plant parts.
Ask the students how we get all of these different plant parts to eat. (Farmers plant seeds, provide the seeds with water and sunlight, and the plants grow. Once the plants are fully grown, they are picked or harvested. We can buy these plant parts at grocery stores and farmers markets or we can have a garden where we grow them ourselves.)

Read “Tops and Bottoms”

Before reading the book, ask students to think of vegetables they eat. List them on a chart. Emphasize that vegetables are plants grown for food.
As a group, look at the cover of the book. What vegetables are pictured? What animals are pictured? Note the Caldecott Honor book Award Medal. This award is given to books that have outstanding illustrations. Encourage students to look carefully at the illustrations as the story is read.
Show students the book Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens. Tell students that this book is about a rabbit and a bear who decided to grow some plants to eat. The title is Tops and Bottoms. Ask the students:
Which vegetables would be tops? (stems, leaves, flowers)
Which vegetables would be bottoms? (roots)
Read the book Tops and Bottoms.
At the conclusion of the book, ask the students:
What are some plants that have good “bottoms” to eat?
What are some plants that have good “tops” to eat?
What are some plants that have good “middles” to eat?
How is the Hare similar to farmers who grow plants that we eat? The hare knows about the different parts of a plant and which ones we eat. He also knows how they should be grown and harvested.
What lessons can we learn from the Bear? He is not knowledgeable about plant parts so he does not get as much healthy and tasty food as the Hare. He is also lazy. The story suggests that laziness will harvest little.
How do the decisions that the Hare and Bear make impact their lives? Listen to students’ observations!

Tops and Bottoms Activity

Have students fold one plate in half then open it up and draw a line where it was folded in the middle. Color one half light blue and the other half brown.
The blue space will serve as the sky, so anything that grows on “top” should be placed on the line “growing” up into the blue. Anything that grows from the “bottom” should be place on the line “growing” into the brown side of the plate. (For example, a student might draw a carrot. The green part, which is the top of the carrot will be above the line. The carrot will be below the line as it grows in the soil.)
Students should draw three or more vegetables on their garden plate.
When finished with drawing and coloring, they will fold the other plate in half. Open the plate and cut along the fold. Write Tops on one half of the plate and Bottoms on the other half.
On the left side of the first plate with the vegetable drawings, place a hole punch about an inch in on the line.
Place the two halves of the cut plate on top of each other and place a hole 1 inch in on the left side. This hole should line up with the garden plate. Line up all the holes and place a paper fastener through the holes to secure the plates. Now the bottom plate should have a cover. When the “Tops” is pulled up it should show the crops that grow on top, and the same with the “Bottoms.”

Concept Elaboration and Evaluation

At the conclusion of this lesson, review and summarize the following key concepts:

Roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and fruits of some plants are edible. These plant-based foods need soil, water, and sunlight to produce their delicious and healthy food items.
Farmers grow and harvest vegetables and fruits for us to eat.
Eating vegetables and fruits provide a healthy diet.
Some plants have edible tops, middles, and bottoms.

Enriching Activities

Wash the vegetables and fruits thoroughly and have the students also wash their hands thoroughly. Prepare a plant parts salad or other healthy snack with the vegetables and fruits used in the lesson.

Obtain a variety of vegetable seeds representing the parts of a plant and have students plant them in small pots or cups with drainage holes. All that is needed is water and light, and the seeds should sprout in one to two weeks.

Distribute copies of the school lunch menu for the week or month to the students. Ask them to identify the vegetables and fruits being served and determine whether they are a root, stem, leaf, fruit, or a flower.

Additional Resources/Lessons

Corresponding Lesson with “Plant Parts We Eat” worksheets