Our tallest is currently 1m 65cm. They got up to 2m 47cm last . . . → Read More: Sunflower Challenge 2011]]>

Today’s the Day!

If you’ve been growing sunflowers with us as part of the Compton Hospice Sunflower Challenge you need to measure your sunflowers today. There are fabulous prizes on offer for the tallest bloom, so measure up and contact Compton with your vital statistics.

Our tallest is currently 1m 65cm. They got up to 2m 47cm last year, so there’s plenty more growing to be done. How tall are yours?

Sunflower Festival

If you’ve been enjoying growing sunflowers (whether you’re joining in the official challenge or not) and have a sunflower-themed play idea to share with us – we would love to see them. Please add a link to the Linky at the end of this post. We’ve shared some ideas for art, science and math in our Sunflower Activities ebook, and here’s one more idea for sunflower fun.

How to make a Sunflower sundial

Sunflowers love sunshine of course and grow best when they’re in full sun (challenge contenders take note!), so why not combine the two with a dash of horology science to make a sunflower sundial.

Materials: a stick, a flowerpot filled with soil (or something else to hold the stick upright), a clock timer, yellow chalk, a patio / driveway /yard and sunshine!

Place your stick in the flowerpot, so it stands upright and then place the pot in a part of the patio or yard which gets the sun all day.

This stick will be the gnomon (good word!) which is going to cast a shadow on your dial, and you’ll use the yellow chalk to draw sunflower petals on the floor to mark out each hour of the day. We made our clock from 8am to 8pm

At 8 o’clock use your chalk to draw a petal on the ground, with the tip of the petal marking where the shadow of the gnomon falls. Add a number 8 to the tip of the petal.

Set your clock timer for 9 o’clock. When the alarm goes off, it’s time to mark out the location of the 9 o’clock petal. Continue setting the timer and marking off your petals throughout the day.

You could try out some the the ideas in our Sunflower Activities ebook or from the linky below to help you pass the time. We had lots of excited shrieks when the alarm rang!

Talk with the children about what’s happening with your sun clock. Why do the shadows move? Why are the shadows longer sometimes and shorter at other times? Do they think the pattern is different each day or the same?

Join the Sunflower Festival

Share an idea with us for any kind of sunflower-themed play idea, craft, activity or experiment. The linky will be open until the end of the month, so plenty of time for you to join in if you would like. Help us gather a great resource of sunflower ideas.

happily shared with get your craft on and  science Sunday and  craft schooling Sunday and  something for the weekend

Are you growing sunflowers with your children? We’re joining in with Have a Lovely Time to support the Sunflower Challenge in aid of Compton Hospice and would like to invite you to join our Sunflower Festival

Join the Sunflower Festival

Thursday June 30th is the Official Measuring Day for those of you taking part . . . → Read More: Join the Sunflower Festival]]>

Are you growing sunflowers with your children? We’re joining in with Have a Lovely Time to support the Sunflower Challenge in aid of Compton Hospice and would like to invite you to join our Sunflower Festival

Join the Sunflower Festival

Thursday June 30th is the Official Measuring Day for those of you taking part in the Compton Hospice Sunflower Challenge. We will be hosting a Sunflower Festival here on NurtureStore on that day  – will you join us?

Here’s how to take part:

1. Blog a sunflower-themed idea you’ve enjoyed with your children: a craft, a story book recommendation, a science idea, a game, a recipe, whatever! Our free Sunflower Activities ebook has some ideas to get you started.

2. Visit NurtureStore on June 30th and share a link to your post with us.

3. If you’re growing sunflowers in your garden don’t forget to measure them and let us know how tall they are.

4. Those of you taking part in the Compton Hospice competition will need to let them know how tall your flowers by are to be in with a chance of winning the great prizes.

And to give you some more sunflower inspiration, we’re joined by Zoe from Playing by the Book, who has a wonderful book suggestion to compliment your growing.

What do you think of when you hear the word “Sunflower”? What adjectives do associate with them?

Sunflowers to me are bold, bright and blousy and these sorts of characteristics are often what is focussed on in picture books about these beautiful flowers. Both of the previous books I reviewed here, Measuring Angels and To Be Like the Sun capture brilliantly their brassy, cheeful nature.

Secret in the Mist written by Margaret Nash, illustrated by Stephen Lambert is somewhat different. It’s quiet and meditative book, one that would suit a quiet story time, or a child who is a little more shy than others and for all these reasons it makes a lovely foil to my earlier sunflower picture book suggestions.

A young boy, Jonathon, plants a sunflower and watches it grow. But not only does he watch it at daytime, when it is “nudged by sunshine and laced with summer rain”, he sneaks peeks at it after dark “where it lived in silver shadows and was stroked by bright white moonlight”.

Jonathon delights in watching his sunflower grow, whispering words of encouragement to it and sharing peaceful moments enjoying it with his mother during the day and with his father after bed time. Eventually the sunflower stands proud, “bolder than the blackbird’s song and more golden than the sunshine”, but the most touching moment is in the closing pages of the book when Jonathon stands quietly admiring with his father; although he only planted one seed his sunflower looks so different by day and by night it is as if he has a secret moonflower as well as a sunflower.

This book is full of peacefulness and calmness. It highlights the loveliness of sharing secret, quiet time with each parent, as well as the feeling of awe that can come upon us if we allow ourselves time to stand and stare. The lyrical text is relatively short and structurally repetitive – something that makes it easy and enjoyable for younger listeners. The pastel illustrations are soft hued, warm and gentle.

It would be so much fun to read this book, tinged with mystery and full of love as it is, with your child outside, late one summer evening as twilight begins to fall.

Playing by the Book is a site full of inspiring ideas for bringing children’s books to life with arts, crafts and acitivities – go see – you’ll love it!

Growing sunflowers with your children? Hope to see you at the Sunflower Festival on June 30th!

happily shared with abcand123 and book sharing Monday and  Link and Learn, share your Sunday best

Gardening with children offers so many opportunities to learn. We love growing our own fruit and vegetables, even though our garden is small, so the children get to see where their food comes from and how seeds transform into something tasty to eat.

The sunflowers we’re growing as part of the Sunflower Challenge charity competition are doing . . . → Read More: Make a garden journal]]>

Gardening with children offers so many opportunities to learn. We love growing our own fruit and vegetables, even though our garden is small, so the children get to see where their food comes from and how seeds transform into something tasty to eat.

The sunflowers we’re growing as part of the Sunflower Challenge charity competition are doing well so far – with an extra few centimetres of growth every time we measure them.

This weekend we’ve been working on one of the ideas from our Sunflower Activities ebook: making a garden journal.

(Have you got your copy of the free Sunflower Activities ebook yet? Click on the link and download your copy.)

We’re using a scrapbook for our journal and filling it with all sorts of information and pictures as we go through our gardening year – making a wonderful record of everything we’ve done, seen and grown. Here are some things we’ll be including:

• diary entries of our progress: what we planted, when things began to grown, what we’ve been enjoying outside (giving the kids lots of opportunities to practise their writing)
• photos and drawings of the plants and animals we observe
• treasures stuck on to the pages such as seeds, dried leaves, seed packets
• scientific and mathematical data on how high plants are growing and what conditions  they like

The journal is a collaborative project that everyone is taking part in and I’m making sure to keep it out, rather than stored away on a shelf, to encourage lots of entries whenever the kids see something they want to include. By mixing in writing, photos and pictures everyone can join in – whether they’re at the writing stage or not. We’re hoping by the end of summer – when if we’re lucky we’ll have enough produce for a harvest celebration – to have a beautiful record of all the fun we’ve had in the garden this year.

Are you growing anything with your children? Are you doing any linked activities to springboard the gardening into literacy, math, science or art? We’d love to hear your ideas.

happily shared with works for me Wednesday made by you Monday and science sunday and  link and learn and share your Sunday best and craft schooling Sunday and  creative Friday and for the kids Friday and the outdoor play link up and it’s playtime and   upcycled awesome and works for me Wednesday

Last year we had so much fun running our Sunflower Club with you all that this year we thought we’d like to make it even bigger and better. We’ve joined forces with Have a Lovely Time to launch a Sunflower Challenge and I’m hoping you’re all going to join in and help us raise funds for . . . → Read More: Join the NurtureStore and Have a Lovely Time Sunflower Challenge]]>

Last year we had so much fun running our Sunflower Club with you all that this year we thought we’d like to make it even bigger and better. We’ve joined forces with Have a Lovely Time to launch a Sunflower Challenge and I’m hoping you’re all going to join in and help us raise funds for a hospice which helps people with life-limiting illnesses and their families.

We’re inviting you all to grow sunflowers with your children, either as a family or a class or group and take part in a competition with fabulous prizes for the tallest sunflowers. We also have a free e-book full of fun learning activities for you all, so you can add in some science, maths, art and creativity as you grow. Are you up for the challenge?

How to enter:

1. Donate a minimum* of £2** to our JustGiving page. * Any more is most welcome, if you aren’t feeling the pinch already at a couple of quid.

2. Register online at Compton’s website, and email Katie Love at Compton Hospice (katielove[at]compton-hospice.org.uk) quoting your JustGiving reference number, telling her your name and address so that she can send you a packet of seeds. (Everyone needs the same seeds to see who does the best with them…)

3. With the help of Katie’s information pack and NurtureStore’s Sunflower Activity e-book, grow your sunflower, measure it and tell us all about your success to be in with a chance of winning a prize.

4. Take a picture of you and yours with your blooming sunflowers so we can share your progess with readers of Have a Lovely Time and Nurturestore.

5. Spread the word about the Sunflower Challenge by adding our badge to your blog and inviting your friends and readers to come and join in too.

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Our Sunflower Activities e-book is full of ideas you can use with your children to get the most from your sunflowers growing. It includes ideas for adding in science, maths, art and creativity as you grow. You can download the e-book for free simply by clicking on this link:

Sunflower Activity e-book

To find out more about Compton Hospice and the fabulous prizes on offer pop over to Have a Lovely Time to read more.

We hope you’ll join us in this project and have a wonderful spring and summer growing sunflowers with your children and joining us as we keep you updated on our progress.

Thank you so much for joining in the fun and for supporting Compton House.

happily shared with Works For Me Wednesday and  ABCand123 and Tot Tuesday