Activities & Resources

Sylvia’s Spinach
Story Summary
Sylvia Spivens always says no to spinach. So, what
happens when her teacher gives her a packet of
spinach seeds to plant for the school garden? She
tries to trade them for something better, of course.
When that fails, Sylvia has no choice but to plant her
spinach seeds. At first nothing happens, but little by
little the spinach grows, and Sylvia’s curiosity grows
with it. In the end, growing her own food might just
be the thing Sylvia needs to finally say yes to spinach.
Book Information
Run Time 11:19 Focus
Authors Katherine Pryor
Gardening

Illustrator Anna Raff

Activity Ideas
Narrator Amber May
Grow Vegetables
Publisher Readers to Eaters Plant vegetables like Sylvia and her class did.
Ages 4–10; PreK-5 Alliteration Activity
Genre Literary non fiction Choose a page from the story and ask the children to
find all of the words that begin with a certain letter.
Text Structure Third person narrative with dialogue
Writing
Themes & Ideas Gardening, vegetables
Write a list of 10 words that begin with the same letter
Language & Alliteration, dialogue your first name begins with.
Literary Features
Sentence Simple; compound, and complex Writing and Drawing
Complexity What food starts with the same letter as your name?
Vocabulary spinach, sprouting, shoots, slugs If you can’t think of one—make one up. Write a
description of the food, using as many words that
Special alliteration, dialogue, quotation marks,
Vocabulary ellipsis start with the same letter to describe the food.
Illustrations airy ink cartoon-like illustrations

Additional activities can be found in the following

pages of this document.

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 Book Chat
NAME

Sylvia’s Spinach
A picky eater discovers the joy of growing food and the pleasure Discuss the story and write your
of tasting something new. answers together.

What is Sylvia’s Spinach about?

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Have you ever eaten spinach? If yes, do you like it? If no, why not?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________

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Name three vegetables you like to eat? Describe the way they taste.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________

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Name three vegetables that you would like to grow in a garden.

Explain why.
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What do you think would be the best part about having a garden?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________

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 Vooks Pause & Ponder

Sylvia’s Spinach Pause at the indicated time

stamps and discuss the story

0:26 Why do you think Sylvia Spivens always says “no” to spinach?

1:18 What is something you had to eat that you didn’t like?

1:58 What do you think Sylvia is going to plant?

3:24 Does spinach grow from seeds?

Have you planted seeds before? If yes, what kind of seeds? If no, what kind of seeds
4:15 would you like to plant?

5:01 What does sprouting mean? Do you think Sylvia’s seeds will sprout?

7:43 Why are there no vegetables?

What kinds of vegetables would you eat if you grew them? Do you think Sylvia will
8:19 eat her spinach?

9:16 What do you think Sylvia will take home to her family?

10:09 Why does Sylvia like spinach now? Has something like this happened to you?

After viewing the Book:

1. Name three things that plants need to grow.
2. Why are some vegetables ready to eat before
others?
3. What does it mean to be a picky eater? What
does it mean to eat healthy? What kind of eater
are you?

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 Coloring Sheet NAME
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 Drawing and Writing NAME

Draw a seed packet and describe the plant you will grow.

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 Word Search NAME

Find the words from the Sylvia’s The word can be positioned in all directions, written from
Spinach word bank in the word left to right, from right to left, horizontally, vertically, and
search below. diagonally, but is always on one straight line.

Word Bank C L B H O X L K R F P Y N L O A P T A C
■ SPINACH
H A E P A A T E B K L W L T A K Q E P J
■ TOMATO
■ KALE M Q E V S R B E J W H N A D P T E K C F
■ CARROTS C H Z A O M V F D C E M S N F S X C E C
■ SPADE
S A G A U H D E Z W O W P I A A T A Q S
■ SEED
■ GROW P N R C W I S L S T G Z A M E L I P H L
■ SUNLIGHT
A U U R D L C K B T F C D H L A O C K E
■ PACKET
■ CUCUMBER
V C B D O J E V U Y T Y E C B D L Q A J
■ SQUASH D X T R Y T D T M L X H B A L S E N U R
■ LETTUCE
I D X Y O A S F T P E Q G N L D X X C W
■ SALAD
■ LASAGNA N K L I Z A C H I U T J S I R A J S V K
■ PLANT N F C F N G W O R I C H F P L O P T N E
■ SHOVEL
E W H S Q J J W O R G E H S U N G K K I
■ LEAF
■ DIRT R X E X K Q W R K A L E I L U G U Q C L
■ SPRING
✓
S E Y B V V G V P L W Z X O F T N S X P
■ HARVEST
■ DINNER
D M T W R T D Y K U F V W Q R A N S M R
A N X Y H V Z S Q U A S H I D Z O B A L
A H W W C P E Q S T W T D G I E S A S J
O Y B N D Y X E G L P F J H I L T P I X
S P R I N G J Y R T N A L P N W B X G K

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 Make a Paper Salad Craft

Materials needed
• Construction paper—Green, white, yellow,
orange, red
• Paper plate
• Markers
• Glue

STEP 1 Directions
1. Cut your red, yellow, white, and orange
construction paper into small pieces that
resemble vegetables. For example, you might
cut your orange construction paper into circles to
look like carrot slices. But, be sure to use shapes
that make you happy!
STEP 2
2. Take your green consruction paper and tear it
into strips like lettuce or spinach.

3. Glue the different pieces to your paper plate.

4. If you like salad dressing, drizzle a little bit of glue

on the top of your veggies.

5. Show your salad to your classmates and friends!

STEP 3

STEP 4

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