Planting Sunflowers for Summer!

The children have been planting sunflower seeds since we returned after the Easter break.

This was inspired by a child holding onto her apple seed from her lunchtime apple all day and wanting to plant it!

The children have learnt how plants grow and that they need lots of sun, water and soil, which has helped to give the children an understanding of the world, specifically nature.

Planting the seeds was great fun and the children were very patient waiting for their turn to plant their sunflower seed!

They loved being outside moving around and exploring, and developing their fine motor skills using their hands to work a trowel and to use a watering can.

The children will be bringing their sunflowers home once the little shoot has emerged so please encourage your child to take responsibility for looking after their sunflower; they will love watching it grow!

Perhaps plant more so that you can have a family growing competition! I have plenty more seeds if anybody needs any and have planted spares in case there are any disasters!

As the sunflowers grow talk to your child about their height; are they getting higher and ask questions, "how tall do you think it will be?"

We would love to see pictures of the sunflowers when they have grown nice and tall so please send some into preschool and we can look at them together!

A few ideas to do with your child at home:

• Discuss why sunflowers are grown (decorative cut flowers, oil for cooking, seeds for cooking - look out for seeds in bread and in bird seed).

• Once the flowers have died, save the sunflower heads and children can pick out the seeds with tweezers, encouraging their hand-eye coordination and developing their fine motor skills in their hands ready for writing.

• Save the seeds to plant again next year or make a bird feeder.

• If children have enjoyed this activity think about other plants they might like to try and grow; some crops like cress are quick growing and can be done on a windowsill!