The Ugly Vegetables Book Activities

Today we are enjoying one of Grace Lin’s first book- The Ugly Vegetables. Enjoy the book as a read-aloud and then grow some literacy skills with these The Ugly Vegetables book activities.

The Ugly Vegetables Book

Full Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

The Ugly Vegetables by Grace Lin is the story of a young girl who sees her neighbors growing lots of flowers in their yards. But, in her yard, they are growing rough, bumpy, and not very colorful vegetables. She’s a little disappointed that bright colorful flowers aren’t in her yard. Her mother shows her that those vegetables make the most delicious soup. Soon, the smell drifts through the yards and neighbors line up with bouquets of flowers in exchange for some delicious smelling soup.

The Ugly Vegetables Activities

Activity 1: Match the Digraphs

Cut and laminate pages 5 and 6 in the packet. (download below)
Students match the beginning digraph to the sound they hear at the beginning of each picture card.
ch: chair and chicken
wh: whale and whistle
th: throne and three
sh: shell and shoes

Activity 2: Making Pretend Soup

Each student will need a sheet of page 7. (download below)
Discuss each vegetable. Talk about the color, shape, size, growing conditions, etc. of each.
Then, let each child color the vegetables they would like to add to their soup or they could draw a line from the vegetable to the soup pot.
Alternate Ideas
-Have students practice writing the letter ”s” on the soup pot.
-Have students label the vegetables.
-Have students add any vegetables not listed on the sheet with any other vegetables their families enjoy.

Activity 3: Making Real Soup

Make the recipe at the back of the book.

Get the Printable The Ugly Vegetables Activities

Become a free Growing Book by Book newsletter subscriber via email, and get The Ugly Vegetables Activities as a thank you gift. Just click the purple button below.