What Do You Wonder About the Sunflower?

To excite curiosity in the children – which truthfully is easy to do in these kids – a head of a freshly cut sunflower was placed on each of their tables. Quick to notice the small details, the children described and drew the attributes of a sunflower.

MT- Sunflowers have leaves and sunflowers have petals, too.

They continued to observe the heads for changes. As the appearance of the sunflowers subtly changed, curiosity and questions increased. I asked the children, what do you wonder? They answered:

I wonder…

MT- Why does the sunflower have petals?

DW- Why does the sunflower have green leaves?

DS- Why the sunflower has polka dots?

EW- Why is the sunflower yellow?

MH- Why the sunflower has teeny-tiny flowers?

MH- are the flowers really dying? Nobody watered the sunflowers.

 

What changes do you see?

DW- They are wrinkly and they are starting to get dry. Because they have been sitting in our (tables) for a long time. The tiny florets look brown. It smells like a regular flower.

MA- I see the mold. This petal is on top of the mold.

 

What is under the florets?

I see/think... 

MT- Green things.

MA- Leaves.

MH- The tiny petals are falling off the sunflower.

LW- I’m really looking under them to see what is under them. It's white and yellow stuff.

DW- White pollen.

MH- Little tiny blacks.

LW- I see white pollen.

It will be interesting to see what the children discover over the next week!

We listened to a short story about a boy who wanted to plant a sunflower garden in the shade, so he and his father decided to do an experiment. They planted sunflowers in the sun and the shade. Our children discussed what they thought would happen. Would they all grow? As a class, the children answered, yes, and they were right! All of the flowers grew, just not in the same way. 

I asked, what did you notice about the sunflowers in the sun verses the sunflowers in the shade? 

EW- Some are bigger, because they were more in the sun.

MH- The bigger flowers are yellow and brown. The little ones are not all yellow and brown.

The boy and his father observed the sunflowers in the morning and in the afternoon. I asked our class, what do you notice about the sunflowers in the morning compared to the same sunflowers in the afternoon? 

EW- It is pointing a different way?

MH- Because it has an abra, abra means it turns this way and this one is turning this way.

MA- Something is at the bottom and something is at the top.

In our classroom, we observe carefully for details and watch for changes. Like Mary Anning and Galileo, we watch, wonder, and explore deeper, just like scientists.