Materials:
Katie and the Sunflowers by James Mayhew
Paper and pencil

Take turns reading aloud and showing the pictures in Katie and the Sunflowers by James Mayhew.

Do you enjoy going to art museums? Why or why not?

Why do you think Katie liked to go to art museums?

What made Katie want to touch the sunflowers in The Sunflowers painting by Vincent van Gogh?
She liked to work in the garden and thought the sunflowers looked just like they had seeds in them for her to plant.

What stage of growth were many of the sunflowers in?
Ripe, ready to harvest What was the evidence that brought you to that conclusion? The flowers were brown and crunchy, you could see the seeds, and when the sunflowers fell to the floor the seeds fell all over the floor.

How come only one of the Breton Girls were willing to help Katie clean up her mess?
The other two were dancing in the picture titled Breton Girls Dancing by Paul Gauguin.

What do you think attracted ZaZou the dog to snatch up the sunflowers and run off?
Possible answers include they were bright and colorful, the stems reminded him of sticks, he just wanted to play, he wanted to play tug of war, he wanted attention.

Describe what happened in another one of Vincent van Gogh's paintings titled Café Terrace at Night.
Zazou ran through the café knocking things over and tripping the waiters, making them upset.

How can you tell that the Cafe Terrace at Night was painted by Vincent van Gogh?
His brush strokes, bright colors, and night skies might help to identify his paintings.

What happened to make Paul Cezanne's Still Life with Apples and Oranges not very "still"?
Katie and Mimi pulled the tablecloth so that all the apples and oranges rolled out of the painting and tripped the waiter from the previous painting.

What made ZaZou drop the sunflowers?
The red dog in the Tahitian Pastorals by Paul Gauguin.

What valuable things did Katie and Mimi learn in the Tahitian painting?
It's hot in Tahita. It is an island. It had treasure but the people there didn't want it because they had everything they needed. Katie probably realized she could use some of the treasure to clean up the messes she made in the other museum paintings.

What would the sunflowers really look like after they had been through all those exciting places?
The stems would probably be broken, most of the seeds would have fallen off, petals and leaves would be bent, broken, or fallen off. The flowers might have looked wilted because the color had changes and they were drooping.

What does Katie like about the rain?
She can go to the museum and rain makes the garden grow.

What did the three artists have in common?
Possible answers include they all lived and painted about the same time during the late 1800's; they were postimpressionistic painters that used thick strokes of strong colors in paintings about contemporary life and how they felt about it; they all became very famous male artists with their paintings still on display in museums and galleries around the world.

It would be impossible to make the paintings in an art museum come to life like Katie did, so what can you do to make a trip to an art museum interesting and fun?

Have the students come up with ideas. You might want to generate questions that would make something about the artwork come to life. Take the questions to a local gallery or museum and see if you can figure out the answers to some of the questions. Also see if the paintings bring up more questions.

Materials:
Sunflower Sal by Janet S. Anderson
Marker or chalkboard, or large sheet of paper and chalk or markers
8" x 8" plain sheets of paper (one per student)
Paint, markers, colors, colored pencils (your choice)
Colored electrical tape or masking tape that you can draw on

Take turns reading aloud and showing the pictures from Sunflower Sal by Janet S. Anderson.

What did Sal feel like she could do well?
Pick apples, build snowmen, plant sunflowers, and help her Mom, Dad, and Grandma

What made her think she could do those activities well?
Her parents and grandmother said and did things that made Sal feel good about her size and what she could do. She could reach apples, shake nuts out of trees, jump ditches, rescue kittens, swim quickly, build big snowmen, and pick berries without squashing them. She saw the beauty in the sunflowers and it gave her an idea that she thought she could do. She asked her Pa for seeds and then she pursued her idea or dream. Every year she tried something different. Her family supported and encouraged her talents. She had an idea to make a quilt on the landscape with sunflowers and she made it happen. She and her family saw the quilt pattern from the hill and it made everyone feel proud and happy.

What things do you feel like you can do well? List the activities on the board.

What makes you feel like you could do those activities well?

What did Sal feel like that she couldn't do well?
Make quilts.

What made her think she couldn't make quilts very well?
She said that her needles wouldn't thread and her squares wouldn't square. She felt like she was just making a mess. It made her feel big and clumsy. Her Ma told her that quilting was not her talent but sunflowers were.

What did Sal do to fell better about her quilt-making talents?
She made a huge sunflower quilt by planting sunflowers around the edges of fields, pastures, the farmyard, etc.

What things do you feel that you can't do very well?
List the activities on the board.

What makes you think you don't do those things very well?

What can you do to help yourself or others feel better about the things you or they don't feel that they do very well?

What did Sal like about sunflowers?
The color up above her head, "swirl of gold and tawny brown and coppery green." She could plant the seeds herself.

How did Sal get the seeds for planting sunflowers?
She asked her Pa for the seeds from the sunflowers he had planted.

What time of year did Sal probably receive the sunflower seeds?
Fall

What did Sal like to pick in the fall before she discovered sunflowers?
Apples

What time of year did Sal plant the sunflowers?
Spring

What natural resources did the sunflowers need in order to grow?
Sun, soil, water, and air.

How did the sunflowers get those resources?
Sal planted the seeds in the soil, the rain and Sal watered the plants, and the sunshine and the air was already there where she planted the seeds.

Where did Sal plant the sunflowers?
By the back door, behind the garden, each side of the lane, and around the edges of fields, pastures, and farmyards.

What time of year did the sunflowers bloom?
Summer

What else was growing in the summer?
Corn, tomatoes, hayfields

What did her family say about the sunflowers plantings each year?
The first year the sunflowers blocked the back door. The second year, they shaded the garden. The third year, they made people smile when they went down the lane. The fourth year, they were confused then amazed and joyful about the giant quilt Sal had made by stitching the patches of land together with sunflowers.

Which direction did Sal's sunflower blooms face in the morning and which direction did they face in the afternoon?
Besides looking like the sun, sunflowers are called that because the blooms follow the sun. So they would face east in the morning and west in the afternoon.

What did Sal do in the winter?
Made the biggest snowmen and tried to make quilts.

Now it's your turn to make a classroom sunflower quilt.

Sunflower Quilt
Distribute the squares of plain paper and markers, paint, or crayons. Ask the students to design a quilt square with whatever they want to draw about sunflowers. Remind them to sign their name somewhere in the quilt square. They should leave about ¼ to ½ inch edges around the square to allow for tape that will hold the squares together.

Place all the squares on the floor to form the shape of a quilt. Using masking tape, colored tape, or some other decorative tape, tape the squares together. You may want to add stickers or draw on the masking tape to make a more decorative border. Compare your quilt with Sal's quilt. Note that Sal used sunflower borders to connect the squares on the landscape. Everyone could draw sunflowers on the masking tape using colored pens.

Hang the quilt in your room and enjoy the feeling you get from sunflowers!

Sunflowers are wonderful plants to demonstrate seed germination and growth. The large seeds are easy to handle and plant.
Supplies:
Sunflower seeds
Potting soil
Peat pots or paper pots (see page 46 in GITG, for instructions to make pots from newspaper)
Water
Labels - purchased wooded or plastic labels or 1" x 6" strips cut from gallon milk jugs
Permanent marker
Flat or tray to hold pots

VARIETY. There are several different varieties that can be grown. 'Mammoth', also known as 'Mammoth Russian', or other tall-growing varieties are recommended for sunflower houses. Dwarf varieties, such as 'Teddy Bear', 'Elf', or 'Happy Face' may be better for children to plant and take at home.

PLANTING TIME. Sunflowers germinate in five to seven days and reach transplant size in about 4 weeks, so do not sow the seed more than four weeks before the average last frost date in your area.

PLANTING. Since sunflowers do not like to have their roots disturbed during transplanting, it is advisable to sow the seed in peat pots, made of compressed peat fiber and available from most garden centers, or into paper pots. These containers are degradable and can be buried in the soil at planting time, minimizing damage to the roots.

Fill the pots completely full of potting soil. Have the children poke a hole about ½-inch deep (up to the first knuckle on their index finger) and put the seed in the hole and cover it.

The children should prepare a label for their container that has their name and "sunflower" written on it with a permanent marker. Place the label near the edge of the pot. Water the soil gently but thoroughly. Place all the pots close together in a flat and set in a bright, sunny location. Once the seedlings emerge, set them in a sunny location and keep the soil moderately moist. They will be ready to plant when they have two or three true leaves.

As the plants grow, discuss the four natural resources as they relate to the growth of their sunflowers. (GITG Kindergarten lesson, "Unit 2, lesson 4, "Sun, Soil, Water and Air")

There are several factors that affect the rate of sunflower seed germination, such as water, light, and planting depth. Demonstrations and hands-on experiments are excellent ways in which children will learn more about the requirements for seed germination. Below is a simple experiment with five different treatments that can be done to demonstrate these concepts.

Supplies:
Sunflower seeds (packaged for planting)
Potting soil
15, small paper cups (6 oz)
Rulers
Labels-masking tape, or tongue depressors
Permanent marker

Poke a small, ¼-inch diameter hole in the bottom of nine cups. Fill the cups with potting soil. Plant one seed in three cups at least 2 inches deep; place a label in or on the cups that says "1. deep". Plant one seed in three cup ¾-inch to 1-inch deep; place a label in or on the cups that says "2. shallow". Place a seed on the surface of the soil in three cups and label them "3. not covered". Apply the same amount of water to each cup so that the excess water drains out the bottom.

Fill six cups (without a drainage hole) with potting soil. Plant one seed 3/4-inch to 1-inch deep in all six cups. Place a label in or on three cups that says "4. no drainage, wet". Add enough water to three cups so that the soil is soggy. Label the remaining three cups "5. dry" and do not water these three cups.

Record the planting date and set the cups in a warm location. Keep the soil moderately moist in cups labeled 1 through 3, soggy in cups labeled 4, and do not water the cups in treatment 5. Check daily for germination. Use the following table to record the germination and growth rate. This information can then be used for exercises in charting and plotting.


Planting date: _________________

     

Treatment	Number of days til emergence	Growth rate (stem length 3 days after emergence)	Growth rate (stem length 7 days after emergence)
1 (deep)	1
	2
	3
2 (shallow)	1
	2
	3
3 (not covered)	1
	2
	3
4 (no drainage, wet)	1
	2
	3
5 (dry)	1
	2
	3

You may want to develop a graph or chart with the findings recorded on the chart. Have the students describe what they see.

What are your conclusions from this experiment?

How would you use these conclusions to start plants in pots inside or to start and transplant plants outside?
Consider how deep the seeds were planted, how long it took them to grow, how much water and sunlight they had, and so on.

Why did we plant three pots of each treatment?

Were there differences in the rate of growth between the three pots in the same treatment?

What would cause the differences between the rate of growth in the pots with the same treatment?

This experiment can be expanded to include the effects of various light levels on the growth of the seedlings. Place the three cups from treatment 2 in three different locations that receive bright, moderate, or dim light. After a week or two, observe the differences in plant growth.

Sunflower seeds are attractive to many bird species because of their high oil content that provides energy for feather replacement, migration, and winter survival. Birds prefer sunflowers seeds over other oil seeds because the seed coat is easily hulled or removed by most bird species.

There are two different types of sunflower seeds that are used in birdseed mixtures:

• Oil-type sunflower seeds are preferred by many species. These small black seeds have a thin shell or seed coat that is easy for most species to hull. Most commercial birdseed blends include some black oilseed sunflower.


• Gray striped sunflower seeds are larger than the oil-types and are commonly roasted and salted for human consumption. Although the birds eat it, they prefer the smaller, oil-type seeds. Some bird seed blends contain hulled pieces and sunflower kernels, which are preferred by smaller birds, such as finches and white-throated sparrows.

In mid- to late May, plant a row of 'Mammoth' sunflowers in a sunny, well-drained location near your school. Water as needed and control the weed competition around the plants. A think layer of mulch can help manage weeds and keep the soil moist around the sunflower roots. When you return to school in the fall, harvest all but two of the heads and extract the seeds. Observe the plants that remain in the garden to see if birds or other animals harvest the seeds. Dry the harvested seeds by placing them in single layers on cookie sheets or trays. After a week or two, place the seeds in air-tight plastic bags and use later in the fall or winter as bird seed in a feeder outside your class window. Observe and record the species of birds that visit the feeder.