Free Printable - Sunflower Life Cycle with Play-doh Mats and Poem for Children

Do your students ever wonder how sunflowers grow from tiny seeds to towering plants? With our free playdough mats and poem printable, you can teach them the sunflower life cycle in a fun and interactive way! They’ll learn about germination, growth, blooming, and seed production while using their creativity to mold and shape colorful play dough. And the included poetry will help them remember the process long after they’ve put away their mats. So let’s get started on this journey into the fascinating world of sunflowers!

Playdough mats are a versatile and cost-effective teaching tool for preschool classrooms. They offer a fun and tactile experience for young learners that can enhance their learning in multiple ways.

Firstly, playdough mats can help children develop their fine motor skills. Working with playdough requires the use of small muscles in the hands and fingers, which helps to strengthen them, improving dexterity and control. Mats that feature pictures or shapes encourage children to manipulate the dough, shaping it to fit into the outlines. This process further enhances their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.

In addition to developing physical skills, playdough mats can also promote creativity and imagination. Preschoolers love to explore different textures and colors, and playdough provides plenty of opportunities for them to experiment and create. Mats that feature open-ended prompts, such as “create your own monster” or “build a treehouse,” encourage children to use their imaginations and think creatively. This type of activity is beneficial for developing problem-solving and critical thinking skills.

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Playdough mats can also be used for teaching language and literacy skills. Mats that feature letters, numbers, or simple words provide opportunities for children to practice letter recognition and letter formation. By combining playdough manipulation and letter recognition, children can also develop their phonemic awareness skills, which are crucial for early reading success.

Using playdough mats in the preschool classroom is also an effective way to facilitate social skills. When children work together on playdough projects, they learn to take turns, share, and cooperate with their peers. This type of activity strengthens their social-emotional development and helps them build positive relationships with others.

Here are just a few ways that playdough mats can help children develop their fine motor skills:

Hand-eye coordination: Children will need to use their hands to manipulate the dough and their eyes to guide their movements while following the mat’s designs. This helps develop their hand-eye coordination.

Grip strength: Squeezing, rolling, and kneading the dough all require grip strength, which helps children develop fine motor skills.

Finger isolation: Playdough mat activities can help children develop finger isolation, which is the ability to move individual fingers independently. This is important for more complex tasks such as writing.

Bilateral coordination: Using both hands together to manipulate the dough can help develop bilateral coordination, which is the ability to use both hands simultaneously and efficiently.

Hand dexterity: Playing with playdough can help strengthen and build dexterity in the hands, which is important for skills such as buttoning clothes, tying shoelaces, and using scissors.

Free Sunflower life cycle playdough mats

Sunflowers are amazing plants that are loved by children and adults alike! Not only are they vibrant and beautiful, but they are also a great way to teach children about plant life cycles.

In this article, we will explore the sunflower life cycle with free playdough mats and poem printable for children.

Using Playdough Mats to Teach Sunflower Life Cycle

Playdough mats are a fun and interactive way to teach children about different concepts. When it comes to learning about the sunflower life cycle, playdough mats are a great way to engage children and help them visualize the different stages of growth.

To get started, you can download and print out the sunflower life cycle playdough mats. There are four mats in total, one for each stage of the sunflower life cycle: seed, sprout, plant, and flower.

Once you have printed out the mats, you can laminate them or slip them into sheet protectors to make them reusable. Then, give your child some playdough and let them use it to create the different stages of the sunflower life cycle on the corresponding mats.

As your child creates each stage of the life cycle, you can also talk to them about what is happening at each stage. For example, when they are creating the seed stage, you can explain how the seed needs soil, water, and sunlight to grow.

Using a Poem Printable to Reinforce Learning

In addition to the playdough mats, you can also use a sunflower life cycle poem printable to reinforce learning. This printable features a simple rhyme that explains the different stages of the sunflower life cycle.

Print out the poem and have your child color the sunflower and the different stages of growth. As they color, you can read the poem aloud to them and emphasize the key words and concepts.

Teaching children about the sunflower life cycle is a great way to introduce them to the wonders of nature. With the free playdough mats and poem printable available in this article, you can make learning about the sunflower life cycle fun, interactive, and engaging for children of all ages!

Fun story and a Poem to complement Sunflower Life Cycle playdough mats

Once upon a time, a tiny sunflower seed was planted in the soil. It sprouted into a green stem and grew leaves that soaked up sunlight. As it grew taller, a small bud formed at its tip, which soon burst open into a beautiful yellow flower. The flower contained tiny seeds, waiting to be scattered by the wind and grow into new sunflowers. Eventually, the flower wilted and died, but not before leaving behind a legacy of new life. And so, the sunflower cycle continued, bringing beauty and joy to all who saw it.

From tiny seed to towering height,
A sunflower’s journey is quite a sight.
Planted in the dirt, it starts to sprout,
Reaching up towards the sun, no doubt.

As days go by, it grows up fast,
A stem so strong, it’ll surely last.
Green leaves form, capturing the light,
A picture of beauty, to our delight.

Then slowly but surely, buds appear,
A promise of beauty, oh so clear.
Petals unfurl, a golden hue,
A stunning sunflower, in full view.

And as time goes by, it’s time to rest,
Seeds begin to form, in their nest.
A life cycle is complete, but not the end,
For these seeds will begin again.

How to prepare sunflower life cycle playdough mats

Print out the sunflower life cycle playdough mats.
Laminate the mats. Laminating the playdough mats will make them more durable and reusable. You can use a laminator or self-adhesive laminating sheets to protect the printout.
Gather the playdough. You can use store-bought playdough or make your own using a simple recipe. Ensure that you have enough playdough for all the children in your classroom.
Set up the playdough station. Create a dedicated playdough station for the sunflower life cycle activity. Place the laminated playdough mats, playdough, and any other tools (e.g., rolling pins, cutters) on a table or tray. Make sure there are enough supplies for all the children.

How to use sunflower life cycle playdough mats

Here is a simple recipe for no-cook playdough that you can use in the classroom to create sunflower life cycle playdough mats:

Ingredients:

2 cups of flour
1/2 cup of salt
2 tablespoons of cream of tartar
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups of boiling water

Instructions:

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, salt, and cream of tartar.
Add the vegetable oil to the dry ingredients and mix well.
Gradually add the boiling water to the mixture, stirring continuously until the dough forms a ball.
Once the dough has cooled, divide it into four or five equal parts.
Place each part of the dough in a separate bowl or container and add a few drops of different food coloring to each one, mixing thoroughly until the color is even throughout the dough.
Provide students with a sunflower life cycle playdough mat.
Introduce the activity. Explain to the children that they will be learning about the different stages of a sunflower’s life cycle using playdough.
Show the children how to use the mats. Demonstrate how they can use the playdough to fill in the shapes and designs on the mats. You can also show them how to roll, cut, and shape the playdough to create the different elements of the sunflower life cycle (e.g., seeds, leaves, stem).
Encourage creativity. Playdough mats are a great tool for promoting creativity and imagination. Encourage the children to use different colors of playdough and come up with their interpretations of the sunflower life cycle.
Reinforce learning. As the children work on their playdough mats, ask them questions about the different stages of the sunflower’s life cycle. Reinforce the learning by pointing out the different parts of the sunflower (e.g., seed, roots) and the sequence of events (e.g., seed germination, flowering).
Have students create the different stages of the sunflower life cycle using the appropriately colored playdough. For example, they can use brown dough to create the seed, green dough to create the sprout, and yellow dough to create the flower.