Ukraine Sunflower Collaborative Mural

My 7th grade students painted and cut out the sunflower shapes on this bulletin board display!

Globally, awareness of the association between sunflowers and Ukraine has grown since Feb. 24, 2022, the first day of the Russian invasion.

However, the flower has an even longer history in the country. Sunflowers have been grown in Ukraine since the mid-18th century, and sunflower seeds are one of the country’s most popular snack. The flower also helps fuel the national economy today; Ukraine and Russia supply up to 70–80% of the world’s sunflower oil exports.

“The ubiquitous presence of the sunflower in the villages and countryside of Ukraine has made it an unofficial national symbol” according to a 1993 Enclyclopedia on the nation.

Throughout Ukraine’s history, the flower has been used as a symbol of peace. In June 1996, to celebrate Ukraine giving up nuclear weapons, U.S., Russian and Ukrainian defense ministers planted sunflowers in a ceremony at southern Ukraine’s Pervomaysk missile base.

More than 25 years after that ceremony, Russian and Ukrainian ministers are at war, but the meaning of the sunflowers as symbols of peace has not changed, as the cropping up of sunflowers worldwide has become a call on leaders to plant the seeds again for a more peaceful future.

(Paraphrased from TIME article, March 4^th 2022, with Reporting by Abby Vesoulis

This collaborative sunflower mural was created by my 7^th grade students as a wish for peace and a showing of support. Each student drew two sunflowers, creating the outlines with oil pastel and then painting the center and petals with watercolor. When dry, the sunflower shapes were cut out and we arranged them over a blue and yellow festooned bulletin board. This joyful display reminds us daily of the need to support Ukraine!

Here is a VIDEO I created to help the students through the steps of creating their sunflowers, in case you’d like to replicate this lesson with your students.

Here is a REFERENCE SHEET of sunflower pictures which I provided while we were working.

Here are some pictures of students at work! This was our last lesson before their 12 week art trimester ended and a meaningful way to keep them engaged during their last few days of class.