I don’t think that there’s anything on that planet that more trumpets life than the sunflower. For me, that’s because of the reason behind its name. Not because it looks like the sun, but because it follows the sun. During the course of the day, the head tracks the journey of the sun across the sky; a satellite dish for sunshine. Wherever light is, no matter how weak, these flowers will find it. And that is such an admirable thing; such a lesson in life.
–  Helen Mirren

Although we run our classes indoors, we love to see the smiles on the children’s faces when we bring a little bit of nature from the outside, in. Earlier this year—when learning about the letter “S”—we made our own coffee filter sunflowers, but since sunflower peak growing months are in the summer we were not able to bring them into class… until now.

Bringing fresh flowers into the classroom allows for a multitude of multidisciplinary and multisensory hands-on activities for the kids to partake in. During circle time, we asked our little learners whether anyone knew what kind of flower this was, and to no surprise, most were able to recall that the flower we were looking at is called a sunflower. As we passed the sunflower around, they all had an opportunity to touch, see, and smell the sunflower. This created a forum in which we were able to discuss the colors of the sunflower, explore its texture, and enjoy its fragrant aroma. Our little learners took turns sharing their perspectives and they were eager to see what we would do next.

In addition to reviewing the parts of the flower and discussing what flowers need in order to grow, we engaged in a fun fine motor activity. The children were encouraged to take turns using tweezers (or their fingers) to carefully remove the petals and transfer them to a bowl on the tray we were using. They loved having a chance to count how many petals they took off as well as sneaking in another whiff of sweet-smelling sunflower. Extracting the petals of the sunflower is part of a more long term project in which we will allow the sunflower head to dry out so that the seeds can be harvested. This is a simple and effective way to combine math, botany, and practical life skills to name a few. In part, the beauty of this activity is that this can be easily replicated at home! There are many online resources that describe how to harvest sunflower seeds (such as this one below). Not only is this a fun hands on way to learn, but it can make for a delicious snack!

http://www.wikihow.com/Harvest-Sunflower-Seeds

Brainy Academy’s part time Montessori program
Brooklyn, NY