The verse was already on the chalkboard and the lamp was already on in the reading nook when my five-year-old walked to the nature shelf, picked up the sunflower head I had set there, and said, "Mama, it has a face." That was the whole lesson plan, really. Everything we did after that was just following him.
This is how we actually use the Sunflower Anatomy Cut & Paste Activity in our classroom. I am not a science teacher, and I do not pretend to be. I am a mama with a flower, a glue stick and two boys who like to make things with their hands.
Start with the real flower, not the page
Before any paper comes out, we look at the flower. I set it in the middle of the big shared table, the one at counter height where the boys climb onto their stools, and I say almost nothing for a minute. Then I ask one question at a time.
- "Where do you think the seeds are?"
- "Can you find the part that holds it up?"
- "Which part would the bees land on?"
My five-year-old points and guesses. My three-year-old touches the petals and announces that they are soft. Both answers count. I am not testing them, I am letting them get curious, and I think that is what a nature shelf is for.
If you do not have a sunflower, a picture from a seed packet or a library book works. A flower from the yard works too. The page will make more sense to a small child if their eyes have been on the real thing first.
Then the cut and paste page
When the boys have looked long enough, I hand each of them a page. I print it at home on regular letter paper, which is how all our worksheets come. The activity is simple: cut out the pieces and paste them where they belong on the sunflower. That is why it works for two ages at once.
What my five-year-old does
He cuts on his own, slowly, and he checks each piece against the real flower before he glues it down. This is where I lean in a little and say, "Show me where you think that goes." If he places something in the wrong spot, I do not fix it. I say, "Let's look at the flower again," and he usually fixes it himself. He likes being the one who finds the mistake.
What my three-year-old does
I cut the pieces ahead of time for him, or I cut them while he watches. His job is to hold a piece, name a color, and press it down with a glue dot. If he wants to tear paper, I let him. A three-year-old who is allowed to be part of the work will stay at the table longer than one who is handed busywork. Ten minutes is a good morning for him, and I do not stretch it.
The order of our morning
I keep it the same each time so nobody has to wonder what comes next.
- Read the verse on the chalkboard together.
- Look at the real sunflower and ask your three questions.
- Cut and paste, side by side at the table.
- Clip the finished pages to the wall where the week's work hangs.
That last step matters more than I expected. When the boys see their own work clipped up, they walk past it all week and tell their dad about it. If you are curious how the room is set up, I wrote about designing your homeschool classroom, and none of it needs to be fancy.
Where it fits in our week
I like to pair the sunflower with something slower and messier, so the cutting does not carry the whole morning. On a day like that we might do the Fall Colors leaves worksheet for coloring, or pull out the Fall Leaf Stamping Printable Activity Pack for something with paint. A page that asks for scissors and a page that asks for color make a good pair. You can browse everything else in the worksheet shop. Each worksheet is $4.00, or $2.00 if you are a member.
If you teach at a kitchen table
For two years we did exactly this at the kitchen table, before the classroom existed. If that is where you are, clear one end the night before and set the flower in the middle, with scissors and glue in a small basket. That is enough. The flower and the questions are doing the teaching, not the room.
If you want company, joining is free and gives you 50% off every worksheet, plus 31 free printables, and a place in the members' forum where mamas of little ones share what is working. Our state requirements differ, so if you are wondering what your state expects, the resources page is a good place to begin.
What I hope they carry with them
I do not need my boys to memorize the parts of a flower this week. I want them to look closely at something God made and to feel that looking is worth the time. The sunflower turns its face toward the light, and I find myself saying a quiet prayer that mine will too. Jesus told us to stop and notice: "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow." We just happened to consider a sunflower.
