With this Fairy Soup Activity, toddlers and preschoolers can make concoctions with items from the garden, and strengthen co-ordination skills, snipping, pouring and stirring, while enjoying an afternoon of water play in the backyard.
This week, keeping with our fairy theme, we headed out to garden for one of my kids’ favourite backyard activities: Fairy Soup!
Making fairy soup is a great way for kids to enjoy some water and play with flowers and other treasures from the garden and strengthening their cutting skills.
You’ll Need:
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- large Stock Pot
- soup bowls
- wooden spoons & ladels
- scissors
- glitter
- shaker bottles
Extra “ingredients”:
- polished stones
- polished stones
- flowers from the garden
Making Fairy Soup!
I filled up a large stock pot with water, added some food colouring, set it on the table and called the girls over.
They went for the glitter first. I kind of thought they would.
If you know me at all, you know that the hooligans are a little glitter deprived. I’m a total glitterphobe, but after the success that we had using it in our fairy mud last week, I was happy to bring it out again today. I’m really making progress, aren’t I? Mind you, it helps that we’re outside. Maybe one day we’ll graduate to using it inside.
They spent the next hour or so adding the shells and stones, and collecting flowers from the garden.
Our rose bushes are in full bloom right now, so the blossoms are plentiful, and they were really fun to pull apart and decorate the soup with.
They scooped and poured and transferred their soup from the pot into the bowls and back into the pot again.
The glitter shakers were quickly emptied, so the girls would pop the lids off, fill them with soup, and sprinkle the coloured water into the bowls.
They spent ages adding ingredients, stirring and then scooping out handfuls of shells and stones for sorting.
We ended up colouring a couple more batches of water before the morning was over, and when it was all said and done, we removed all of the shells and stones from the bowls, and we poured it all into the garden.
Easy, inexpensive, engaging and fun! It was the perfect activity for a warm summer’s day
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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.
Kai Jalland
What gorgeous fun! My children did an activity very similar to this all off their own back the other day, involving their Ikea cooking set and almost all the daisies in the garden. It was butterfly soup, though, designed to attract more butterflies to the garden! By the way, Nurture Store has just finished a really sweet fairy week worth checking out. I’ll try and send the link in a bit… Thanks again for your blog, I love watching what a great time your hooligans have!
Kai
Kai
Hello again. Here’s the link to the Nuture Store fairy week. Enjoy it!
http://nurturestore.co.uk/waldorf-steiner-make-a-fairy
Best wishes. Kai.
happyhooligans
Thanks, Kai! I didn’t know about Nurturestore’s Fairy Week! I’ll check it out. And thanks for the link to your linky!
Kristen B
This is a pretty neat idea. I would love for you to come link up at Artsy Play Wednesdays.
http://www.babygiveawaysgalore.com/search/label/Artsy%20Play%20Wednesday
Capri + 3--Theresa
I love the Fairy Soup idea. The little girls in your home daycare are so lucky! Thank you for linking to Artsy Play Wednesday and sharing your great ideas.
OneMommy
Oh how fun!
Mine are always picking the flowers… Never thought of getting out the water and letting them make soup!
We may need to try this one!
Lauren
So fun! My daughter would love this! Thank you for sharing at our Pinteresting Party.
katbiggie
What a fabulous idea! I have two little girls, and I can only imagine how much fun they would have with this! I have pinned it! Thanks for linking up with Pin It! Tuesday!
happyhooligans
You’re welcome! Glad you liked it!
Vashti Quiroz-Vega
Hi! The Fairy Soup is an adorable idea! I came across your link via Pin It Tuesday. I’m a new follower. Have an awesome day! 😀
Natalie
This looks like a lot of fun! Thanks for sharing with Afterschool!
Lauren
I just wanted to pop back in and let you know that I’ve featured you at this week’s Pinteresting Party! This is a wonderful sensory activity that we will do over and over this summer!
happyhooligans
Thank you, Lauren!
JDaniel4's Mom
What a wonderfully created idea you have cooked up! I bet it looked lovely in the pot.
Stacy of KSW (@stacyofksw)
This looks like so much fun!
happyhooligans
Thanks, Stacy. It was a big hit here!
jaime@FSPDT
hi, featuring you this week on moms library! love the colors and flowers! thank for linking up!
happyhooligans
Yay! Thanks, Jaime!
Cheryl @ KidsOnAPlane
My daughter would love this fairy soup! It gets the kids outside and keeps the “mess” out there too! 🙂
motheryourbusiness
okay, that is straight up amazing. can I come play in your daycare too?
Carla
We had great fun exploring this at our nature preschool group! http://insideoutsidemichiana.blogspot.com/2014/04/fairies-at-nature-preschool.html
Thanks for the inspiration!
Cleo
I loved this idea so much. We don’t have a garden so we did an out and about version. I just posted about it. Thank you so much for such a great idea
http://www.cleocobb.co.uk/2014/05/20/fairy-and-unicorn-potions-in-the-park/#more-1381
Gerry
This website is awesome. My wife and I can’t wait to start doing some of these things with our daughter. I found this site by accident… happy, happy accident.
happyhooligans
Welcome, Gerry! So happy you found me! Happy to have you on board! I hope you and your daughter make some great memories while enjoying my activities!
Michelle Ferrell
I guess I don’t understand… it is making a glaze on the rocks to attack the flower petals and glitter to the rocks and shells?? I guess I don’t understand what it does? I am a girly girl and I think I am missing the point… help me understand what the craft is doing? thank you so much!!! <3
happyhooligans
It’s just a water play activity, Michelle. There isn’t an end result. It’s not a craft, but an activity. The children simply scoop and pour and stir the water, and add bits and bobs from the garden, along with shells and stones that I’ve set out as “ingredients”. It’s a bit like making mud pies, only their making “fairy soup”. I hope that explanation helps.
Olivia Rose
I adore this idea and can’t wait to try this fun sensory activity with my daughters. Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to read more interesting blogs for you.
Jackie Currie
Yay! We do this one all the time, Olivia! It’s such a hit with all of the kids.