Sunflowers in all of their glory - what could be better than a Van Gogh Inspired Project



You know I am a sucker for all things mixed media.  Here we seen a combination of paint and chalk and clay and paper and the results are delightful.

 
 
Sunflowers are super tall plants that follow the sun when they are young and have hundreds of tiny flowers packed tightly together in the middle. [1, 2, 3]
Young Sunflowers Follow the Sun
  • Heliotropism: Young sunflowers turn their heads to face the sun from east to west every day.
  • Waking up: They move back to the east at night to wait for the sunrise.
  • Stopping: Once they grow up and bloom fully, they stop moving and stay facing east. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
One Big Head is Made of Many Tiny Flowers
  • Mini flowers: The dark center of a sunflower is not just one flower.
  • Florets: It is made of hundreds or thousands of tiny individual flowers called florets.
  • Petals: The bright yellow petals on the outside are called ray flowers. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
They Grow Really Tall, Really Fast
  • Super growth: Sunflowers can grow up to 10 or 12 feet tall in just six months.
  • World records: The tallest sunflower ever grown reached over 30 feet tall.
  • Name meaning: Their scientific name is Helianthus annuus—"Helios" means sun and "anthos" means flower in Greek.