Garden soup is one of our go-to water play activities here in my daycare. You can set it up in less than a minute, and it will keep kids busy and learning in the backyard for ages. It’s great for developing scissor skills and fine motor skills, and it’s a wonderful way for toddlers and preschoolers to explore nature in their own backyard.
Making “Garden Soup” is one of my daycare kids’ favourite activities in summer time. They love this kind of pretend play set-ups that allows them to mix up wonderful concoctions in the backyard.
Click here to get our Printable List of 100 Summer Boredom Busters!
They’ll spend the better part of a morning snipping leaves, flower petals, and grass from around the yard and garden, and they scoop, pour and mix for ages preparing these big bowls of “garden soup”. It’s such a great activity for strengthening both fine and gross motor skills.
I set this activity up several times every spring and fall, and it never fails to entertain the hooligans for hours.
How to set up a Garden Soup Water Play Station:
This would be an excellent water table activity but we don’t have a water table, so I rely a trusty bench or a second hand coffee table. Both make a great DIY activity table that the children can gather around.
Tools and instruments for making garden soup:
- scoops
- tongs
- water pitchers
- ladels
- wooden spoons
- tweezers
- measuring cups
- funnels
- scissors
- large pots and bowls
Skill development with water play:
Making Garden Soup is about more than just playing in water. There’s lots of learning going on here as well.
Fine motor skills are strengthened as the children pluck and snip flowers and leaves from the garden. Decision-making skills are challenged as they choose their ingredients for their soup.
Hand-eye co-ordination is required as manipulate tongs, tweezers and ladles.
Strength and gross motor skills are tested as the children lift and pour heavy jugs of water.
Critical thinking and calculating are involved in pouring just the right amount of water into their soup pots.
There’s collaboration and co-operation and the sharing of utensils in the kitchen, and imaginations flourish!
And of course, the kids get plenty of exercise and fresh air as they run back and forth from the soup station to the gardens.
They’ll spend hours mixing, pouring, cutting chopping, scooping and transferring their soup from one bowl to another.
And clean up is a breeze… It all gets dumped into the garden when they’re finished!
More fun and easy water play ideas:
- Fairy Soup – water play with flowers, sea-shells and glitter
- Water Works – a water with tubes, pipes an funnels
- Deep Blue Sea Bin – a water bin with sea animals
- Colour Laboratory – a coloured water-mixing station
- Dinosaur Bin – a prehistoric water bin
- Ice Age Bin – excavating toys from ice with water and salt
- Coffee Shop – pretend play with water, soap and sand
Follow the Hooligans on Facebook
Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.
Â
Kierna Corr (@CiarnaC)
Love it, you are so fortunate to have such lovely flowers to snip off & add to your soup, ours is mainly bark chippings, grass & weeds!
happyhooligans
What about hitting the clearance rack at a garden center, Kierna? Could you could pick up some containers of plants that are past their best, and let the kids have a go at them?
crystal@growingajeweledrose
Beautiful photos Jackie!
happyhooligans
Thanks, Crystal!
Eddie
Oh, that takes me back! I used to spend hours making flower soup and fairy houses with my friend next door when we were kids!
happyhooligans
Your comment just made my day! One of the most important things to me, in my daycare, is to provide the Hooligans with those experiences that we had when we were kids – good, old-fashioned fun, so I LOVE hearing that an activity that we’ve done reminds a reader of something they did when they were a child. Glad this brought back some happy memories for you. 🙂
Trisha @ Inspiration Laboratories
We used to do this when I was a kid, too! Only we called it perfume. We put the water in cups and tried to give it to our parents. 🙂
Sarah Mankelow
Lovely! Nice to be reminded that it’s spring somewhere in the world!
Jane @ Mama Pea Pod
How fun! Brings back memories of my own childhood.
Katherine Lockett
Great idea! Pinned (so doing this tomorrow!) 😀
The Monko
that looks like so much fun. I don’t actually have that many flowers growing in the garden but I have been known to buy cheap bunches so Goblin can mess around with them.
happyhooligans
Great idea to purchase inexpensive flowers to play with!
Zina :: Let's Lasso the Moon
I did this as a child. I absolutely loved all the images. Thanks for sharing. You made me smile!
happyhooligans
You’re welcome, Zina! Glad it brought back some fun memories for you. 🙂
Jacquie@KCEdventures
What a fun project for kids & I love the practice for their fine motor skills! Thanks for sharing at the Discover & Explore Gardening with Kids linky – pinning to share with others!