Sunflower Fine Motor Activity

Your kids will LOVE THIS! The sunflower fine motor activity is one the cutest, most amazing fall activities for kids ever.

Table of Contents:

1. Here’s why you need to try this sunflower fine motor activity
2. I’m going to do this sunflower fine motor activity every year
3. Materials
4. Directions
5. What’s a good example of a fine motor activity for preschoolers?
6. The sunflower fine motor activity is “sun-sational”
7. FAQ

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Here’s why you need to try this sunflower fine motor activity

It has all of the good stuff.

It’s got science, fine motor, exploration, math, teamwork, and excitement.

I had wanted to try this for literal years, and it exceeded all of my hopes and dreams.

Related: Our GIANT 10-foot Fall coloring page banner has a sunflower + all of the other fall images your kids know and love.

I’m going to do this sunflower fine motor activity every year

On a whim, I purchased (many) giant sunflower seeds from the nursery in the Spring, and watching something enormous grow from a seed is pure joy.

This will be a tradition for me now, especially after discovering this activity.

I have been giving away sunflowers to everyone I know with kids, and their kids are loving this just as much as we did!

Looking for more Fall activities? We love these:

• Fall Directed Draws for Kids – Friends Art Lab
• Sunflower Still Life Fall Art – Friends Art Lab
• Clean the Pumpkins Fall Toddler Activity – Busy Toddler
• Fall Themed Cutting Practice for Kids – Toddler Approved

Materials

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• Sunflower head – ideally, one that is beginning to die so the seeds are loose (here are some seeds similar to what I used)
• Tweezers – optional
• Bowl or plate – optional

That’s it. That’s the full list. You really only need a sunflower!

Directions

Setting this up takes two seconds because it’s as simple as providing your little one with a sunflower.

First, introduce and examine.

I would first introduce this sunflower activity by providing a child with the sunflower and inviting them to examine it.

• What do they see?
• How does it feel?
• What colors do they see?
• Does it smell?
• Are there any bugs?
• Does it have any petals? Leaves? A stem?

Next, remove & explore the seeds!

Your child might prefer using their fingers, tweezers, or a mix of both.

We found that breaking off parts of the sunflower helped to loosen up the seeds, too.

• How many seeds do they see?
• Are all of the seeds the same color? (Different kinds of sunflowers make different colored seeds)
• How do the seeds feel? Smell? Look? Sound?
• What would happen if the seeds were planted?

If possible, create an experiment to watch some seeds grow by planting them in a garden or a glass jar with wet cotton balls (no lid).

Note: The hand-tweezers we used here didn’t help remove the seeds from the flower, but they were great for moving the seeds from the table to the plate. The orange tweezers were perfect for removing seeds and transferring seeds.

What’s a good example of a fine motor activity for preschoolers?

This activity is fantastic for fine motor practice.

In this sunflower fine motor activity, kids are:

• Moving fingers to remove seeds
• Using bilateral coordination (holding the flower with one and removing seeds with the other)
• Exploring hand-eye coordination in moving the seeds
• Grasping and holding onto the flower
• Manipulating tweezers with a tripod grasp
• Using a pincer grasp to pick up individual seeds from the table

The sunflower fine motor activity is “sun-sational”

I am already looking forward to doing this again next year!

Whether you grow your own sunflowers or can get them from somewhere else, you’ll fall in love with this, too.

FAQ