We cooked up some soup at this week’s library story time! Amy started us off with our familiar songs and showed us how our favorite library animal friends had been busy in the play kitchen and were all sitting down to a feast.
Polly read a couple soup themed stories from Stone Soup and Little Bear and then showed us how we can engage in delicious and nourishing cooking play outside using a pot, bowl or bucket, a little water and whatever natural materials we find in our own yards. Kids love using their imagination to transform sticks, leaves, rocks, and dirt into vegetables and spices.
Extending the cooking play:
- Dedicate a space outside as your “outdoor kitchen.” The whole point is for kids to use their imaginations, so this kitchen doesn’t need any actual kitchen implements, it’s just a space to stir and mix and pretend with whatever is on hand.
- Bring this type of fun learning inside by setting a chair next to the sink and letting your kids make soups in the sink with water, soap, bowls, and measuring cups and spoons.
- Take soup and potion making right into the bathtub. Who says that baths need to happen at the end of the day!
When kids are in charge of their play, they are learning. If you are looking for some quick ideas about how to help your kids engage in this type of free, engaging, imaginative play, check out the DIY activities at the Tinkergarten website: https://tinkergarten.com/activities
If you’d like to receive email updates about our library story times offered on Zoom Tuesdays at 10:30 a.m., please share your email with [email protected].
Amy Carter and Polly Mahoney