Dear Kindy Kids and Teachers,
With all this lovely sunshine your sunflower plants should be shooting up! We have some media opportunities coming up so if you think you will have a flower bloom by the end of the project, please email us this week and let us know.
Keep tracking your sunflowers growth on your Growth Tracking Sheet so it's ready to submit with your final measurements.
Even though we are a few weeks away until the end of the project, now is a good time to start thinking about who you will award as your 'Daltons Best Little Gardener'. It could be a child that really enjoyed gardening and was committed to the daily tasks of caring for the sunflowers. The special prize pack (hat and apron) and certificate were in your starter pack.
Don't forget there is also a Kids Participation Certificate available to download and give to all your little gardeners at the end of the project.
Remember to email us any sunflower questions or a fantastic sunflower facts we can share with the other kindergartens and children. The kindergarten with the best question or fact will win TWO bags of Daltons Mulch and Grow which you can use around your sunflower plants.
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Keep them coming! We'd also love to see some photos from Nelson/Tasman, Christchurch, Dunedin, Tauranga and Wellington regions. It will be great to see how you are getting on.
Remember that any photo you send in could win Best Overall Photo at the end of the project. The winner gets a framed copy of the photo from Warehouse Stationery and a $100 Daltons voucher.
Upload your photos via our website or email them to us.
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Will from Rototuna Early Education Centre in Hamilton is proud of his sunflower!
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Brooke staking a sunflower plant at Kauri Park Kindergarten in Auckland.
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Avery from Orakei Kindergarten has done a wonderful sunflower picture.
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Willow has the tallest sunflower at Wellsford Kindergarten.
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Rototuna Early Education's sunflower patch with Mila Dol, Will, Indie and Mila Kingi.
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Cambridge Kindergarten is waiting for the next stage of their sunflower life cycle chart, the appearance of a flower bud.
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Charlize from is admiring sunflowers in the rain at Karamuramu Kindergarten. Great to see such gardening dedication!
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Ivan from Deanwell Kindy measuring one of their sunflowers.
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Great looking sunflowers at TeAtatu Kindergarten in Auckland.
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Gardeners Sethuna and Grace from Devon Kindergarten in Lynmouth tending to their sunflowers.
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Want to know how your sunflower bud will open up? Here's a video showing the sunflower bud as it slowly opens up a little more each day.
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Sunflower Bingo! Here's a fun game for the children to enjoy, whilst learning number recognition and other pre-math skills! |
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Did you know that Sunflowers are more than pretty faces? They are good at absorbing toxins too! Sunflowers have been used to help soak up nuclear radiation. Millions were planted after the devastating tsunami destroyed reactors in the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan. |
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We've talked about his before in previous emails, but now that your plants are bigger you will start noticing a behaviour called heliotropism (watch a video here) a bit more. This means flower buds (before they open) and young blossoms will face east in the morning and follow the sun as the earth moves during the day. But, as the flowers get heavier during seed production, the stems will stiffen and the mature flower heads will generally remain facing east. |
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Don’t forget to share your best sunflower photos or learning experiences with us by email or upload to our website.
Happy growing!
From the Daltons team.
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