Sunflower Storytime

Books

Poetry

Flannelboard

Fingerplays

Craft

Cardinal and sunflower by James Preller; pictures by Huy Voun Lee.
New York : HarperCollinsPublishers, c1998.
The seeds scattered by a mother and her child as they walk through the park on a cold winter day feed a pair of cardinals and grow into a plant that feeds their babies the next summer.

Max loves sunflowers by Ken Wilson-Max.
New York, N.Y. : Hyperion Books for Children, c1998.
Lift the Flap book
Max plants seeds, and waits. The seeds grow, and he dances when the sunflowers open.

The missing sunflowers by Maggie Stern; pictures by Donna Ruff.
New York : Greenwillow Books, c1997.
Simon gets three sunflower plants from his bird-loving neighbor Mrs. Potter, only to have them disappear one by one.

Secret in the mist written by Margaret Nash; illustrated by Stephen Lambert.
London : Levinson Books, 1998.
Jonathan grows a beautiful golden sunflower, which turns into a beautiful silver moonflower at night.

Sunflower by Miela Ford; pictures by Sally Noll.
New York : Greenwillow Books, c1995.
A young girl plants a sunflower seed, waters it, and watches it grow.

Sunflower house written by Eve Bunting; illustrated by Kathryn Hewitt.
San Diego : Harcourt Brace & Co., c1996.
A young boy creates a summer playhouse by planting sunflowers and saves the seeds to make another house the next year.

Sunflower Sal by Janet S. Anderson; illustrated by Elizabeth Johns.
Morton Grove, Ill. : A. Whitman, c1997.
Sal, a very big girl, cannot sew a quilt like Gran's no matter how hard she tries, but eventually she finds that her talents lie elsewhere.

This is the sunflower by Lola M. Schaefer; pictures by Donald Crews.
New York : Greenwillow Books, c2000.
A cumulative verse describing how a sunflower in a garden blossoms and, with the help of the birds, spreads its seeds to create an entire patch of sunflowers.

Poetry: (Still looking for ideas!)
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Flannelboard: Grandpa's Magic Seed. Story and pattern available in:

FlannelGraphs: flannel board fun for little ones, preschool-grade 3 by Jean Stangl.
Belmont, Calif.: Fearon Teacher Aids, c1986.
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Fingerplays:
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One Lonely Sunflower

One lonely sunflower growing in the sun,
Wants to play and have some fun,
Then Whooooosh went the wind,
and scattered all the seeds,
and now there's lots of sunflowers,
playing in the breeze.

Flower Garden
(The Farmer In The Dell)
The farmer plants the seeds
The Farmer plants the seeds
Hi, Ho and Cheery O
The farmer plants the seeds.

(Use the following verses.)
The sun begins to shine...
The rain begins to fall...
The plants begin to grow...
The flowers smile at us...

Relaxing Flowers

Five little flowers standing in the sun	hold up five fingers
See their heads nodding, bowing one by one?	bend fingers several times
Down, down, down comes the gentle rain	raise hands, wiggle fingers and lower arms to simulate falling rain
And the five little flowers lift their heads up again!	hold up five fingers

Craft:
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Make a Sunflower Fort Today!

Make a sunflower fort. Plant sunflowers around a square about 8 feet by 8 feet. Plant vining flowers such as morning glories or scarlet runner beans around the base of each flower stalk. When the sunflowers are tall enough, attach lightweight twine from one head across to another. The vines will grow up the stalks to make a wall and then will crawl across the twine to make a ceiling. The kids will love it.

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