Here is an age-appropriate counting activity for preschool-aged children to do:
Give each child a piece of paper with a sunflower drawn on it. Give them each three to five seeds and have them count how many seeds they have. If they are able to write numbers, have them record the number on their paper. Then have them glue their seeds into the middle of the sunflower and color the rest of the flower.
Here is an activity for teaching or reinforcing following directions:
Give each child a paper with five sunflowers drawn on it. Give each child a yellow crayon, a blue crayon and a red crayon. Have the children listen and follow directions as you have them color the sunflowers. For example: "Children, color one sunflower yellow." "Color two sunflowers blue." etc.
This activity involves several weeks of observations, but the end result is very rewarding:
Study the life cycle of plants in a very simple way. Teach children that sunflowers start out as seeds, then when planted will grow roots and a stem and then produce a flower. The flower then produces more seeds and the cycle continues. A good read-aloud book for this activity is "This Is the Sunflower" by Lola M Schaefer.
After studying the life cycle, have each student plant her own seed in a cup or classroom garden area. Teach them that seeds need soil, sun, and water to grow. Each day have students water their plants and observe any changes. Planting some extra seeds is a good idea in case a child's doesn't grow properly.
Learning shapes is a preschool standard, and this activity will help preschool children see the different shapes in a sunflower:
Each student will need cutouts of these shapes: a brown circle, eight to 10 yellow triangles (depending on how big they are), a green rectangle (long and skinny) and a green oval. Have each child hold up a shape when you say its name. Talk about the properties of each shape. Have the children glue down the shapes to create their own sunflower picture.