Sunflower — a step-by-step lesson for grown-up and child
This lesson grows a giant on your rug: your toddler reaches up like a sunflower, hunts for yellow on the way to the shops, and hears where sunflower seeds come from.
What is this?
A sunflower is a very tall flower with a big round face and bright yellow petals all around it. It turns through the day to follow the sun, and its middle is full of seeds.
What does it mean?
The sunflower is the set’s standing-stretch card — everything about it points up. For a two-year-old, big-and-yellow is an easy win, and the seed story quietly plants the idea that flowers come from tiny things.
What does the child need to know?
Sunflowers are tall, yellow and full of seeds; birds and people both eat them. We look at the big face, we stretch up beside it, and if we ever grow one at home it will need a whole summer of watering.
Why this matters
Reaching tall is real exercise — balance, stretch, wobble, hold — and yellow is usually one of the first colours a toddler names. The sunflower hands you both in one bright card.
What it teaches
Whole-body stretching and balance, colour naming (yellow above all), size words (tall, taller, giant), early seed-to-plant thinking, and pointing practice on a big, unmissable target.
Words to learn
sunflowertallyellowpetalsseedsgrow
Say this to your child
“"Look at the sunflower! It is so tall and so yellow — the tallest friend in the whole garden. Can you stretch up tall like a sunflower? Up, up, up! Its big face follows the sun all day, and hidden in the middle are seeds — seeds that grow brand-new sunflowers."”
Step by step
- Show the card and say sunflower in three beats — sun-flow-er — then hold your hand way up high to show how tall this friend stands.
- Stretch together: up on tippy toes, arms high, wobbling like a tall flower in the breeze, then flop down and do it again.
- Ask where the petals are and where the big round face is — let one finger do the finding while you name each part.
- Tell the seed story: the sunflower’s middle is packed with seeds, and every seed can grow a whole new sunflower next summer.
- Take yellow hunting on your next walk — count the yellow things you find together and cheer the loudest one like a tiny sunflower fan.
Look closer at the picture
Hold the card low and let your toddler find the flower with one finger. Say sunflower together, then reach both hands to the ceiling — this friend is the tall one, and the stretch is the point.
Ask your child
"Is the sunflower big or little?" "Can you stretch up tall?" "What colour is the sunflower?" "What is hiding in the middle?" — answered with a stretch, a proud "yellow!" and a finger pressed on the seeds.
What your child can say or do
"Sun-flow-er!" Expect tall-walking past every fence, yellow shouted at buses and bananas, and seeds requested at snack time. "Taller than a sunflower yet?" may become your family’s measuring joke.
Out in the real world
Sunflowers tower over gardens, allotments and farm-shop doorways all summer. Every roadside giant is a rerun — point, stretch, name the yellow — and a packet of seeds makes the lesson plantable at home.
Try it together
Grow like a sunflower: crouch as a tiny seed on the floor, then rise slowly while you tell the story — a little sprout, a stem, higher, higher — until your sunflower stands at full stretch, arms wide as petals.
Understanding check
Next time you pass something tall and yellow, listen: an unprompted "sunflower!" means the word has roots. A standing stretch on request seals the lesson.
Parent tips
Keep the stretch game near nap time in reverse — big movements first, then flop and rest like a sunflower at dusk. If you plant real seeds, put the pot where your toddler waters it daily; the waiting is the lesson.
Staying safe
Stretching happens on clear floor, away from furniture corners and radiator edges. If you grow sunflowers, the watering is toddler work but the planting soil stays out of mouths — hands get washed after every gardening session.
This lesson pairs with the Sunflower flashcard in the library — print it, show it, keep it on the fridge. Back to Garden Flowers (School Garden).