Sunflowers

 I love sunflowers.  They are so big and bright.

I set up the art table for the children to work together to paint petals 

to make giant sunflowers for our bulletin board.

 Instead of paint brushes I provided small sponges on a stick.

 

 The children used the sponges on sticks in different ways.

Some dabbing, some swiping, some doing a combination of both.

The sponges were great to help them blend the colours.

Lovely autumn colours.

Sunflower Seed Cookies

To celebrate the end of our study of sunflowers we made cookies today.
   
I bought sunflower seeds still in their shells, like the ones we were picking out of the real flower, so the children could try to crack them open.  They learned which part could be eaten and which part couldn’t.
               
The recipe is from Confetti Sweets.  I made half of the recipe the night before to be sure it turned out and brought the rest of the ingredients to school.
  
 
This was our first cooking of this school year.  Some of the children have cooked with me before while others experienced it for the first time.  We took turns, going around the table, adding the ingredients to the bowl, stirring and mixing.
   
The last ingredient was the sunflower seeds.  Once they were added I gave the children more seeds to eat.  No one said they didn't like them. Then we scooped the dough onto the baking sheet.
              
         They were a bit crumbly but I squished them in to balls.
              
Baking help them hold together and they turned a nice golden brown.
                       
The children didn’t have to wait long to try a cookie because I brought
              out the cookies I had made the night before.

Plastercine Sunflowers

Our latest medium to make sunflowers is plastercine; yellow, green and brown.
                           
                           
    The plastercine is soft and very malleable for the littlest children to use.
         
     
The adults enjoyed using just as much.  Some remembering it from their childhood.
                            
It doesn’t have a scent so not as attractive to put in their mouths as play dough.
                  
               I loved seeing the creations left on the table for others to view.

Chalk and Water

I saw an idea over at Think and Play Today that I wanted to try with the families.  Experimenting with chalk and water on paper at the art table
              
I thought we could tie it into our sunflower exploration, although that was secondary.
                     
The majority of the children, especially the younger ones, really enjoyed painting
with the water and that was a far as they went.
 
The older children tried different techniques with the chalk and water.  Some
coloured with the chalk on the dry paper then used the paint brush and water
to make it change.  The chalk looked like paint when wet.
  
  
Another painted the whole paper with water then used the chalk to make a ‘rainbow’.  The chalk looked a little smudgy.
 
Others painted the piece of chalk then drew with it.  It was dark with the
first mark but quickly dried.
     
       Another method was to dip the chalk into the water and draw.
            
With this method we could quickly see the change when the chalk began to dry.

Looking Closer

 
Yesterday a few of the children discovered our big sunflower and started pulling seeds out using tweezers. 
            
Today one little girl showed up later in the morning and went directly to the sunflower table.  Her mom explained to me that they weren’t planning on coming today but her daughter insisted because she wanted to work on the sunflower.
 
As she worked, her mom called me over to show me something they discovered.  They noticed that when they opened one of the seeds they found a little white, banana looking thing inside.  We realized that is the edible part of the seed.  The seeds are still white because it hasn’t ripen completely.
 
Their excitement drew another child who had yet to spend any time with the sunflower.  He began picking out the white seeds.  At one point they had pulled a lot of seeds from one spot and noticed that it was white underneath.  The girl said it looked like cotton.  Her mom said it looked like marshmallow.  When they push the tweezers into it went right through.
       
  
We flipped it over to find the tweezers.  The stem was partially broken and we were able to inspect the inside more.  It is soft, white and a little sticky.
                     
When we flipped it over we noticed how the leaves grew in layers and I wondered how we could make a sunflower at the art table.
            
We decided to paint sunflowers.  I thought we would make one big one but the children decided to make their own. I appreciate how the boy is checking out the petals before he starts to paint.
 
As we painted another child became interested and joined us.
 
I posted their flowers around the table so others can be inspired.  I wonder what other mediums we could use to create sunflowers.
             
              I wonder what we will do with all the seeds we have picked?
                         
I’m hoping to find a sunflower that is ripe so we can pick and compare the seeds.