Flower Soup

Objective: Open ended play and exploration!

Basic Materials:

For this bin you’ll need a towel for spills, a mat (highly encouraged). Flowers your little is not allergic to, here I used roses that were on their way out from Valentine’s Day. Water, scoops, tongs, bowls, and glitter and/or food coloring (optional).

Benefits:

A great low fuss nature experience with flowers and water. The petals, their soft texture, plucking, scrunching, scooping and the added benefit of smell, a sense we don’t often get to explore with bin activities. Additionally, it offers a much needed pouring practice opportunity, getting that wrist in motion and continuing to build fine motor. Water bins have always been a hit, and at 20 months that hasn’t changed a bit. She spent lots of time scooping and pouring the water from one bowl to another, adding petals and stirring them around, and at the end transferred all the petals and bulbs to one bin and proceeded to play with the water. This activity kept her entertained for no less than 45 minutes, which is always a major plus when engagement is high!

How I Interact:

I gave a quick demonstration by grabbing petals with the tongs and placing them in a bowl, putting them to my nose and giving them a big sniff, and then let her take over. My only interaction beyond observation is to make sure majority of the water stays in the bin.