Sunflower Day 30th April 2021 is on its way, hooray!
Who is joining us for this awesome day? Me please!
Remember The Muddy Puddle Teacher is made by teachers for educators, we get it! Planting at school can be hard to fit into your outdoor learning schedule. So we have dotted days throughout the year to help remind you. It is what we do, help you all connect with nature and support a more nature-linked curriculum. Anyone can join in on this day whether you are a teacher, school, nursery, childminder or home educator all of our outdoor learning activities are for you!
Sunflower Day is going to be on 30th April this year! Wahoo!
To start you need: (Find the full instruction sheet here to display in your classroom)
- Sunflower seeds (take a look on our social media pages for free class packs) @themuddypuddleteacher
Make sure these are not Dwarf Sunflower Seeds otherwise you will not get the height which children love to see. If you are doing this as a class either do one per child if you can or put them into groups.
How to plant your seed
- Plant your sunflower seed inside on a window sill if the temperature is likely to drop below 0 degrees and then take it out once the weather gets warmer.
- You can plant it in a pot or directly into the ground.
- Plant the seed about an inch into the ground or pot.
- Water daily around a litre a day. They grow fast so give them plenty of water.
- Make sure they have access to the sun! Place in sunny areas and get the children involved in all of this!
How to enjoy your plant
- Get maths involved on your Sunflower Day. Create a chart and get the children to measure their sunflower weekly. Download the EYFS worksheet.
- Link to art and do some oil paintings, observational drawings, pastel drawings on floors and walls. Use Inspiration from the painting Sunflowers by Van Gough.
- Hook up some literacy and write up how you planted your sunflower, or do some fictional work around it. Give them a title like ‘The Sunflower that Talked’ and let them roll with it. We have lots of eBooks to choose from too.
- Science is up and label the parts of the plant and talk about how to keep a plant healthy. We have a worksheet for this too! Click here.
Have fun
- As a class have a competition, who has the tallest sunflower? With a certificate (use our website) to get at the end. Please note not the certificate and other resource packs are for paid subscribers but free account holders can get access to the sunflowers pack.
- As a school, find out which class gets the tallest sunflower. Give them a certificate (we have a template for you) and member an extra 10 mins playtime?
- – Compete nationally and enter the size of your largest sunflower by midnight July 4th to info@themuddypuddleteacher.co.uk or enter here. The winner will win their class teacher a Muddy Puddle Subscription.
After your Sunflower has grown
Once the sunflower has bloomed, save the seeds for next year. Press the heads and let them be a keepsake for the children to take home and remember their Sunflower Adventure. The Natural History Museum has a great blog about this.
