sunflowers: flower study part 2

Elise and I have spent the past few weeks doing a "flower study."  Read part 1 here!

I've decided to try dedicating a little space in our classroom

each month to a special song or poem.

(Yes!  Elise has her own classroom now - I'll share more soon!)

From the classroom window, we are able to see dozens of sunflowers

and watch goldfinches and chickadees feasting on their seeds.

A sunflower song seemed like the perfect first choice...

Sunflower by Sanford Jones

Sunflower, sunflower yellow and round.

You are the prettiest flower I've found.

Tall, straight, full of grace...

I love the light in your bright yellow face!

This song can also be played on the Montessori bells.  

Here's a cute little YouTube video if you want to hear the tune!

We are using this homemade sunflower puzzle

to learn the names of the parts of the sunflower plant:

roots, stem, leaves, and flower.

(An older child may enjoy labeling the parts or matching 3 part cards like these.)

The puzzle pieces all button together,

which is great because Elise is in a sensitive period for buttoning!

One morning, after buttoning the petals to the seed part of the flower,

we decided to go investigate some real sunflower seeds...

See?  We've even got sunflowers growing out of the sidewalk!

We watched bees drinking nectar and gathering pollen...

And observed that some of the flowers were missing seeds

- could it be the goldfinches?!

We chose a few flowers that were done blooming to cut and bring inside.

We spent the afternoon pretending to be birds,

using tweezers to pull out seeds!

This was always a popular lesson in my classroom 

- check it out here -

and it has been so much fun sharing it with Elise,

who eats all the seeds on the spot, of course! 

flower walk: a flower study intro

One of my favorite things about summer is the all the flowers.  I often find myself completely lost in thought over a sunflower - seriously, Hubs thinks I'm crazy!  It never ceases to amaze me that no matter how long or cold the winter, those plants wait patiently to burst into bloom for a month or two of summer - just the blink of an eye, you know?

Elise seems equally intrigued, so I decided to engage her in a little deeper exploration of our colorful environment. We kicked off our flower study with a simple, sensory experience - a flower walk around the neighborhood.  After filling a bag with snacks and supplies, we hit the sidewalk!

flower walk supplies:

• field guides
• notepad
• magnifying glass
• string for measuring plants and scissors for cutting the string
• an assortment of markers, pens, and pencils

Of course, we ended up using our senses the most!  We smelled, touched (gently!), and delighted in all the different colors and shapes we observed.  Bees buzzed around us, and we pondered the orange powder coating their legs. Could it be the same stuff sprinkled on the inside of those blossoms? 

As we neared home, we stopped to suck the nectar out of few climbing honeysuckle blooms.  While we would never pick flowers from someone else's yard - gasp! - these are growing on a power line in an alley.  Totally okay, right? Anyway, we'd done this once before, but this time we were shocked to find that the flowers were empty!!!  Not even a tiny drop of nectar to be had!  We pulled out the Rocky Mountain Gardener's Guide and began to read about climbing honeysuckle.  Just as we got to the part about hummingbirds drinking the nectar, we heard a buzzing sound, and there was a hummingbird sipping from a flower right above our heads!  Oh, I so love moments like this!

Stay tuned for more flower adventures...

busy hands - toddler edition

opening and closing

matryoshka

piecing together the layers

of a much loved human body puzzle

(Hape)

matching 

young and adult animal cards

(Montessori Print Shop)

putting together the pieces 

of a floor puzzle

(Melissa and Doug)

red - the beginning of a scavenger hunt

inspired by Color Box 2

searching for green items around the house

- dressed in green, of course!

the epic results 

of the Color Box 2 scavenger hunt

observing dairy calves 

at the county fair

going on camping adventures 

lots and lots of camping adventures...

washing dishes,

writing on a rainy afternoon

(making "E" for Elise for the very first time!),

hitting the trail 

with the whole fam,

and filling her heart 

with the wonders of nature!

^^ photo credit to Elise! ^^

... speaking of full hearts - SUPRISE!!!
Another little person will be joining our family in a couple months!

We are beside ourselves with excitement!!!  :)