We started the Dalton’s Sunflower project just before we went into Lockdown. Our Head Teacher Leonie managed to source a few more sunflower seeds and planted them on behalf of the children. She put them in a lovely sunny spot on her dining room table, and kept the rest of the tamariki and kaiako up to date with the progress.

Here’s an update on the sunflower seeds from a few weeks later. If you look closely, you can see the seed in the 3 year olds pot has sprouted. We tested out using empty cola bottles to act as a mini glass house for the seedlings.

Lachlan’s mum said:

“Fab! Lachie and Cole will be planting some sunflower ???? and swan plant seeds in their pots which we painted today.”

The sunflowers Leonie is the kaitiaki of were doing really well. Here’s a photo of their progress.

In addition, Leonie suggested the following activities for whānau.

– Sunflower hopscotch – great if you have chalk at home.
– Sunflower counting activity.
– Plus some extra information on the life cycle of a sunflower if you would like to talk with your child about this.

One of our parents Susan asked how the sunflowers were doing.

Leonie replied on 18 October:

“The biggest one is nearly as tall as the spade. And I have been experimenting how to best protect them from snails and slugs. I’ve been using broken egg shells and a cut soda bottle around the base of the plant to protect it – I’m finding the bottle works best!”

The teachers have been sharing the Daltons sunflower activities for our children. This is Rosetta colouring in the bee on the activity sheet her mum printed off at home.