I love this Spring sensory soup activity. It is inspired by nature. Each soup will be different depending on what is available in your area and what your child decides to include.
I like the idea of being able to gather and use local materials. Other than the plastic bin, this sensory play activity costs nothing!
Since you don’t need to buy any supplies, you won’t have to plan ahead before making this.
What is sensory soup?
Sensory soup is essentially a water based sensory bin. Items are added to the water and usually, kitchen gadgets are included as well to encourage kids to scoop, stir, spoon, and pour.
Kids can engage their senses as well as use their imaginations. They can pretend to make a soup, as well as stir and serve the soup.
Spring Sensory Soup:
Materials needed:
- plastic bin
- spoons, ladles and tongs
- stainer
- small plastic cups and bowls
- spring flowers and flower petals gathered from the yard or forest (dandelions, forget-me-nots, tulips, etc.)
- leaves, grass, weeds, twigs, etc.
- water
Instructions:
- Explore outside with your child. Collect various flowers, grasses and weeds. Allow your child to take the lead on what they want to choose to include in their soup. You can bring a bag or container with you on your nature walk to gather things as you go.
- When you have collected a good assortment of natural items, fill a plastic bin about halfway with water.
- Float the flowers, petals, weeds, leaves and anything else you collected in the water.
- Add spoons and tongs to the bin. It’s best to include a variety of spoons such as slotted spoons, soup spoons, and ladles. These can be actually kitchen utensils or plastic toy ones.
- Add small plastic cups and bowls to the sensory bin.
- You can add a strainer or two as well.
- Invite your child to stir and serve spring soup using the utensils, cups and bowls.
Learning and Sensory Benefits:
Using the spoons will give kids the opportunity to practice manipulation skills as they transfer the flowers to the cups and bowls.
If you include measuring cups and measuring spoons, your child can practise their math skills.
The tongs are good for kids to practice their fine motor skills.
Water play creates the opportunity to splash and pour without worry because any that gets out of the bin will dry out and not create a mess.
This Spring sensory soup provides visual, tactile, and olfactory sensory input. Kids can see the different shapes and colours with their eyes. They can explore textures through touch and they can smell the leaves and flowers with their nose. They can also see how the smells change as the flowers mix together in the “soup”.
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Check out some other Spring Sensory Soup ideas:
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