Planting Sunflowers

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This page provides ideas based around planting sunflowers.

We chose three types of sunflowers to plant: Dwarf Teddy Bear, Jua Maya Hybrid, and Mammoth. We chose these three because they would give us varying heights where we planned to plant them.

We prepared our seed starter trays on March 24, 2020. Here are pictures of our seed trays.

Dwarf Teddy Bear Seed Pack - Front

Dwarf Teddy Bear Seed Pack – Front

Jua Maya Hybrid Seed Pack - Front

Jua Maya Hybrid Seed Pack – Front

Mammoth Seed Pack - Front

Mammoth Seed Pack – Front

Seedlings on March 29, 2020

Seedlings on March 29, 2020

Single seedling on March 29, 2020

Single seedling on March 29, 2020

Trays of seedlings on March 30, 2020

Trays of seedlings on March 30, 2020

One tray of seedlings on March 30, 2020

One tray of seedlings on March 30, 2020

Tray of seedlings on April 1, 2020

Tray of seedlings on April 1, 2020

Dwarf Teddy Bear Sunflower Seedlings on April 5, 2020

Dwarf Teddy Bear Sunflower Seedlings on April 5, 2020

Mammoth Sunflower Seedlings on April 5, 2020

Mammoth Sunflower Seedlings on April 5, 2020

Seed trays with seedlings on April 5, 2020

Seed trays with seedlings on April 5, 2020

Activities

Planting seeds with kids is a great opportunity to learn many life lessons. After preparing the trays and planting the seeds, there is still much work to do and many lessons to be learned. Children learn the importance of taking care of their seedlings while watching them grow. Imagine a child’s excitement when a small seedling starts to emerge from the soil that they so carefully tucked it under just days before!

As those seedlings continue to grow, the child continues to nurture and care for the small, fragile plants that they now have.

In addition to preparing seed trays, planting seeds, and caring for the young seedling until they are ready for transplanting, you may find that you have additional time for related activities. Below you will find a few activities centered around planting seeds.

  1. Have kids count and record the number of seeds they have in each pack. Additionally, you can measure the seeds if they are large enough to be handled by small hands. You can download this simple record sheet for counting and measuring. You can also use this completed Sunflower record sheet as a reference. Be creative in counting! For example, younger children may need to practice counting by 2’s, 5’s, or 10’s. We counted by 5’s in this video.
  2. On the back of the seed packets, you should find information about germination time and mature height. Before showing this to kids, have them write a hypothesis on which one will germinate the quickest or which one will grow the tallest based on the size of the seeds.
  3. Compare the days to germinate, mature plant height, or days to bloom found on the backs of the seed packets. In this example, we compared mature plant height, using this worksheet. Download a blank worksheet that you can fill in for what you are comparing.
    Back of Seed Packets

    Back of Seed Packets

  4. Download My Plant’s Weekly Growth Worksheet to record weekly measurements of your seedlings.
  5. Turn it into an art project! We used yellow construction paper, cut into 1-inch strips. We then glued the ends together. We cut a stem and a leaf from green paper and a black circle for the center. A fun variation would be to use sunflower seeds in the center for an added touch.
    Gluing strips of paper for a sunflower craft

    Gluing strips of paper for a sunflower craft

    Gluing strips of paper together

    Gluing strips of paper together

    Completed Sunflower Art Project

    Completed Sunflower Art Project

  6. For younger children who may be working on word families, this is a fun option. We cut yellow petals from construction paper and glued them to a circle cut from card stock paper. We then colored a paper plate yellow and glued a large black circle in the center. On the petals we wrote the word families and on the plate we wrote the alphabet. We secured the word family sunflower with a small fastener.
    Word Family Sunflower

    Word Family Sunflower

  7. Complete the Parts of the Plant Worksheet.
  8. Match the function with the part with this Plant Function Matching Worksheet.

Be creative and don’t limit the opportunity for learning. Have fun!