Sunflower Education 

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“Clearly written by someone who’s been in the trenches.”

—Steve H., Columbus, OH

                                                   

"Great books for the elementary classroom."

—Maria B., Miami, FL

 

"Sunflower's books are great homeschool resources!"

—Silva E., Chicago, IL

 

“As a teacher, I truly admire your books because they ALIGN with standards (NCTE, NCSS, etc.), but they are not written BY the standards. That is, your books present content in fun, out-of-the-box ways that puts genuine learning FIRST. I find this refreshing in this era of so many standardized texts that fail to capture student interest. I have lost count of the number of times my students’ faces brightened because I was using your lesson plans. Thank you sincerely.”

—Pamela T., Plano, TX

 

“I run the Resource Center at my high school. The teachers all fell in love with these books.”

—Kirsten F., Los Angeles, CA

 

“Excellent activities for my summer schoolers.”

—Meaghan K., Charlotte, NC

 

“Well written for my middle schoolers who are easily distracted. Spot on.”

—Ashley G, New York, NY

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ACTUAL SIZE—Create Full-Scale Drawings Right on Your Playground!

• ACTUAL SIZE—Social Studies

• ACTUAL SIZE—Science

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"This book features true-to-life blueprints and designs to recreate historic animals, places, events, etc. with sidewalk chalk! Who wouldn't want a life size drawing of a Giant Squid?"

—Jessica P., Just Living the Quiet Life

 

“The finished products become both a launching pad for the subject matter and an effective arena for group discussions, simulations, and extension activities.”

—Heather F.

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"We all talk about needing to bring history to life for our kids, but what if they could actually step inside...?”

—Susanne P.

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"By combining art, group work, and exploration, students learn through a fun, project-based lesson instead of a desk-oriented classroom lesson. How rad!"

—Hilary M.

 

"The book comes with a list of core vocabulary words. This is great for language AND artistic students. Just pick the words that have the target sounds in them!

 

What I love about this product:
• It gives students the chance to be creative, which they love! 
• It gives them a chance for some carryover of their classroom lessons into the speech room.
• It gets them up and moving, so the students who benefit from sensory integration will maybe get in some hard work or physical activity.
• It's a different, yet educational and still fun approach to therapy!
• You can target SO many goals with it.
• Students get to use all of their senses and will play, talk, pretend, and learn.
• It's hands-on. Not only do students love it, they will retain more.  
• They're pedagogically sound and appeal to a lot of different learning styles."

—Carissa, Home Sweet Speech Room

 

“Actual Size is a fantastic resource for all grade levels! These activities provide the ‘WOW’ factor and stimulate language-rich experiences for students. Clever idea!”

—Sharon M.

 

“Actual Size—Social Studies is such a fun and useful book! It includes 36 "blueprints" or diagrams that show you how to use sidewalk chalk to draw life-sized or "actual size" images of things. There are actual size diagrams for a Viking ship, an Iroquois longhouse, and even the Statue of Liberty's Torch, among other things.

 

There are diagrams for all of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. I can't help but think that students will have a much more memorable learning experience recreating these structures than they would just reading about them or seeing pictures in a book or on a computer screen. I thought the blueprints for "Historic Transportation" would be really useful to teachers: it includes diagrams for the Santa Maria, the Mayflower, and the Clermont (steamboat). The lesson plan for the Wright Brothers isn't their airplane, but has kids run the actual distance of the Wright Brothers first flights. Very cute!

 

The diagrams are accurate—I checked a few online. Also, every diagram has a step-by-step lesson plan that's written for teachers or homeschoolers or parents to use.”

—Cynthia H.

 

"This is a super fun way to help your kids see the real size of things in comparison to themselves for objects that we would be unlikely to see in real life."

—A Gluten Free Mom

 

"For kids who are artists at heart, this book helps develop their sense of proportion and reveals the intimate connection between math and art. What a treat to be able to cover such a variety of subjects (social studies/history, math, art, and reading) with one simple activity."

—Monica O., MommyMaestra

 

"The lesson was informative but short, so they were really able to retain the information and answer questions I asked them about what they learned about polar bears. Drawing the polar bear was also educational because we were learning about measuring, how to follow a blueprint, and teamwork."

—Emilee R., Pea of Sweetness

 

"As a homeschool mom I love the idea of making life-sized or scale drawings for the kids to supplement their learning. Especially because they're at the age where a visual  will work so much more effectively than just words on a page. Plus, they love sidewalk chalk so this is a great way to get them more engaged with the material.”

—Ashleigh P.

 

"Since we love hands-on activities we really enjoyed using these blueprints to create life-sized drawings of objects we had read about in books. Not only did this help my visual learner understand and appreciate the size and shape of items, it also gave my kinesthetic learner an opportunity to measure and draw and then pretend he was on an actual Viking ship!"

—Susan W., Homeschooling-Educating Through Community

 

“Actual Size—Social Studies is an interesting book. It includes 36 "blueprints" or diagrams that show you how to use sidewalk chalk to draw life-sized images of things. That's why the book is called "Actual Size." There are actual size diagrams for many animals, including a T. Rex, and blue whale, a giant squid, and the world's biggest snakes and spider.

 

Interestingly, a lot of the diagrams aren't "Actual Size" at all, but scale models. There are diagrams to make scale models of the Grand Canyon, the Amazon River, and even the eye of a hurricane. I actually liked these just as much as the actual size diagrams. The book includes lots of scale human figures to cut out to make the size of the scale models make sense. For example, there is a tiny cutout of a Hurricane Hunter airplane that students can "fly" through a scale model of the hurricane eye. Very cool.

 

The 36 diagrams are accurate (I checked a few online and they got the measurements right). Also, the diagrams are cute, with little illustrations.

 

Every diagram has a step-by-step lesson plan that's written for teachers or homeschoolers or parents to use. Very clear and easy to follow. We drew the sharks in the driveway for fun. The Whale Shark barely fit! It was awesome.”

—Kathy B., Kathy's Cluttered Mind

 

“Downloaded and printed during my ten-minute recess. Picked up the printout on my way to get the kids. Walked to the playground, discussed the assignment and information about the bison, gave them the drawing and sidewalk chalk, and let them GO. My 5th graders were able to complete in 1 hour as suggested in the book. We are all looking forward to more on Monday! Thank you for a fine product.”

—Theresa R.

 

"The blue whale lesson plan was so easy to follow and the blueprint so easy to read and visualize, I know I won't have a hard time creating these lessons from chalk.

—Meghan, Life is Good

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AMAZING WORLD RECORDS

• Amazing World Records of Geography

• Amazing World Records of Weather

• Amazing World Records of History

• Amazing World Records of Science & Technology

• Amazing World Records of Language and Literature

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“’World's largest’ always gets students' attention!”

—Heather B.

 

“Actually helped my daughter like geography!”

—Pietra L.

 

“The Amazing World Records of Weather will certainly catch students’ interest. The book deals with the extreme weather phenomena on the Earth like the highest temperature, highest wind speed, largest hailstone, and the worst weather disaster. The book consists of 20 such record-breaking events divided into four sections: temperature, air pressure, precipitation, and disasters. Each has a teacher's page, objectives, teaching tips, three reproducible activity pages, and extension activities. The activities cover a broad range of standards from writing and reading comprehension to content knowledge. The activities would take one to two periods to complete, depending on the level of the student.

 

I was teaching a meteorology unit when I received this book, so I used several of the activities with my students. They were really interested and wanted to cover more of the topics….An excellent starting point for further discussions and research of weather phenomena. I highly recommend the book for middle school and junior high students.”

—Ellis U., National Science Teachers Association

 

“I picked up the Amazing World Records series for interesting weather topics. This book is a fun read for the parents and a conversational piece for the entire family. I read sunniest places, lowest temperatures, weather disasters to driest places and so much more. I read pages during different topics we are working through in our home school classroom.

 

We picked up the Science & Technology book to accompany our science lessons and it has definitely made each topic more interesting when you throw in the world’s largest, longest, oldest and rarest items in the world. My kids have eaten this book up with just thumbing through the pages. I love this series for myself!

 

In Language & Literature I read about the worlds first language, The country with the most spoken languages to the worlds largest library. This book is organized into two units Language and Literature then broke into chapters that explains about a worlds’ record plus student activity sheets.

 

If you are interested in amazing records for mountains, caves, canyons, glaciers and more land forms Geography is the unique book for you. My family and I love geography and we're always searching for neatest facts about the world we live in. We love, love this book.

 

I found myself really thinking about what the worlds largest boat would look like? I found myself very interested and didn't want to put this book down. I am very interested and impatient to bring it to my children. This book really has made me think and want to research and I hope it will do the same in my children.”

—Julie S.

 

“Love your series! Students enjoyed the activities! They were great additions to my lessons! Thank you.”

—Deserii S.

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BULLETIN BOARD IN A BOOK

• Bulletin Board in a Book—Continents

• Bulletin Board in a Book—Oceans

• Bulletin Board in a Book—Scientific Method

• Bulletin Board in a Book—Story Elements

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“Wow! This is awesome! Thanks for helping me plan my Social Studies units!”

—Genette S.

 

“Great bulletin board set to kick off Famous Women! Thanks...

—Mrs. G.

 

“Perfect for our ‘Journeys’ theme!!!”

—Renee L.

 

“These are great! :)”

—Laurie A.

 

“Great resources for the classroom. Thank You!”

—Dene B.

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COOKING UP SOME HISTORY

• Cooking Up Some American History

• Cooking Up Some World History

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“A very neat idea.…the layout is perfect; little snippets of history and background along with the recipes. Hands-on homeschoolers will get a lot of mileage out of it.”

—Shelly B.

 

“This book is great. It gives you tons of ideas to incorporate cooking with learning about the history of the world. It is meant to use with grades K-6, but I think that you could use it with older students as well as an added activity and to make learning more fun.

 

This book is perfect for homeschooling parents and teachers who have access to kitchens at their schools. If you love making learning more hands-on, then this is a book you need to add to your curriculum!

 

Even if you do not homeschool your children, this is still a book you should check out! Your kids will love the fun experience, and you will love that they are learning. :)

—Christy M.

 

“If you are looking for some ways to keep your kids’ brains stimulated and entertained, you might check out a couple of historical cookbooks from Sunflower Education.

 

“Cooking Up Some World History” and “Cooking Up Some American History” teach American and world history through food—not just historically accurate recipes, but lessons about how the availability of ingredients changed as America grew or the role hardtack played during the Civil War, for instance. The books introduce students to the idea that food is an ever-evolving aspect of culture that is influenced by geography, science, technology and the movement of people.”

—Austin American-Statesman

 

“I'm a retired public school teacher (25 years in special ed and elementary ed) and am now teaching in a Christian Home School Co-op. Parents in my Alabama History and US History classes will be making these foods to go along with the curriculum. It makes learning soooo much fun. Great resource!”

—Mally H.

 

“These cookbooks are a fun resource for all grade levels. I love the background information the text provides about the recipes, and the step-by-step directions are easy to follow.”

—Sharon M.

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“My students didn't like hardtack much...a real example of life as it was...only days of hardtack!”

—Janice H.

 

“Wow!!! Love these historical recipes and the information! I learned things I didn't know. Makes you appreciate their sacrifice! Would recommend this for any age and any class! I just love your books! Blessings!”

—Beverly B.

 

“These recipes are fun and since I am a history teacher I let my class pick one and they are simple enough for juniors to do and complete in the kitchen by themselves.”

—Jessica L.

 

“I acquired this book through a giveaway and I'm very thankful! This is an awesome book I can't wait until we start learning about the different American History Lessons and now we can cook something to go along with it! I know it will make the lessons more memorable for my child.”

—Will F.

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“Pioneer recipes worked well for our Pioneer Day!”

—Heather H.

 

 

I Am…American History | Who Am I?

• 100 Mini Posters of Famous People in American History! 

• Fun Guessing Games About 100 Famous Americans in History!

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Cute posters!

—Amy A.

 

“So many posters to choose from! And I love that they all have quotes and facts to go along with them.”

—Marcie S.

 

"I Am…American History and Who Am I?…seamlessly blend learning interesting facts about famous Americans with various guessing games that keep students engaged….”

—Melissa A.

 

“The book of posters is good for almost any grade level. I used it when I taught second grade, I just had a sixth grade teacher that borrowed it and gave it back yesterday. She said it worked great!

—Dee A.

 

“I Am…American History" is a great resource for all grade levels. The pictures are authentic and bring meaning to the person being studied….this is an easy-to-use book for teachers.”

—Sharon M.

 

“I use the Who Am I? questions when I have a couple extra minutes left.”

—Ty C.

 

“Interesting and my daughter reads one page a day. Nice, short and informative!”

—Barbara D.

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THE LITERARY TERMS HANDBOOK: 

A Source of Definitions, Examples, and Exercises

 

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“This is a really great resource—very thorough.”

—Nancy Q.

 

“Great explanations and activities for various literary terms."

—Kim Whit

 

“These definitions, examples, and activities will be a great help in planning lessons on our last novel this school year. I am starting with imagery.”

—Rebecca T.

 

“Clear and concise handouts. My grade 9 English class found them very easy to understand.”

—Manitoba High School English Teacher

 

“A very useful resource! Thank you!”

—Tarasiuk P.

 

“A good item for introductory or review. Thank you so much for your hard work.”

—Joshua M.

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THE GIANT AMERICAN HISTORY TIMELINE

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“It’s a game changer, for sure….a wonderful timeline for homeschool families….we’re doing much more than adding pieces to a wall each day.….we’re reviewing dates, events, and movements. We’re answering questions, viewing these events from a fresh perspective.”

—TableLifeBlog

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“This is the in-depth and thorough curriculum we need with the enriching activities our kids want….delivers an engaging invitation to deeply investigate our nation’s history!”

—The Homeschool Resource Room

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“The books include everything you need (and honestly, more) to create a variety of different timelines.…Creating a timeline allows for endless possibilities, but with very little work for mom.”

—Not The Former Things

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“I was impressed at the sheer size of the two books and the amount of work the publisher put into creating it….Ace began asking questions about what came before and what came after. It led to a lot of very interesting discussion….this works really well for any homeschool that focuses on
child-led learning.”

—Savvy Schooling

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“Students don’t simply read about history…they instead learn to research, discover, and articulate the domino effect of separate events ….Not a linear timeline in which you’ll set up a list of dates….It’s a means to create visual, research-based projects.

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If you’re looking for a workbook-based approached in which the student reads facts, then repeats those same facts onto worksheets, this isn’t it….the nature of the approach—deep research, critical thinking, and hands-on manipulation—makes it ideal for the academically gifted child.”

—Oaxacaborn