Dried sunflowers double as bird feeders, allowing preschoolers to observe the birds living nearby. Cut the stems off sunflowers and dry them for several days, until the center of each sunflower turns brown and the back turns yellow. You may also be able to find dried sunflowers at a farmer's market or garden store. Drill a hole through the top of each dried flower and help children tie on a wire hanger. Take children outside and hang the feeders near classroom windows. Inside, ask children to draw pictures of birds they think will visit their feeders.
Teach children about Vincent van Gogh by showing them pictures of his sunflower paintings. Give children pieces of white paper and set out yellow, brown and green paint. Ask children to experiment with mixing some yellow and brown paint together to create colors like they see in van Gogh's paintings. Once they've experimented for a bit, ask children to paint their own versions of these paintings. Preschoolers won't be able to make any pictures that really resemble van Gogh's, but this exercise will give them practice painting real objects rather than painting blobs and scribbles.
Cutting out all the small leaves of a sunflower is valuable practice for preschoolers. Trace a dozen of these leaves onto one piece of yellow paper for each child. The leaves should be about 2 inches wide. Help children cut out these leaves, then give each child a paper plate. Children must first color one side of the plate brown. They can use either side. Help children glue their leaves around the outside of the plate.
Buy a few bags of sunflower seeds and ask children to guess what they are. Once you've explained where sunflower seeds come from, put children to work making pictures out of them. Pass out pieces of paper and give each child a small bowl of seeds and a bottle of glue. Ask children to first draw a sunflower shape out of glue, then cover the shape with seeds. You may also ask children to write numbers or their names using the seeds. Let papers dry flat until the glue is dry, then hang up the pictures.