The center part of a sunflower, where all the seeds are, can get full of seeds and get almost too big. That center part of the sunflower compares to the story, where each seed is another detail in the story.
A story can get too big too.
There is nothing wrong with that. Not so long ago I was getting away with three and even four day stories for years. But now I see that I was wrong to push the story so far. Now I am starting and finishing a story in 25 minutes. I just wrap it up.
This feels right.
What this means to me in terms of the sunflower image, is that when there are less seeds (less details in the story), I have more time pay attention to the petals – the all-important 21 reading options – more than the seeds. All of the reading and extension activities including WCTG I can get from one 25 minute story are like the colorful petals of the flower, nice and big and orange.
Reading is the key. The stories only exist to bring about lots of reading input.