About the Holiday
On a cold February day (or even a warm one if you live in a southern climate!), there’s nothing more satisfying than a steaming-hot bowl of your favorite soup! While there are many tasty canned soups, in honor of today you may want to try creating your own concoction. Why not check out recipes from your heritage, geographic location, or even your favorite book? Bon appétit!
Soup Day
By Melissa Iwai
This is the perfect book for a cold winter day that celebrates the warmth and deliciousness of soup! In author-illustrator Melissa Iwai’s delightful book, the white flakes are falling and the sidewalks are piled high with snow as a little girl and her mother make their way to the market to buy ingredients for their homemade soup. At the store they fill their basket with celery, potatoes, mushrooms, carrots, onions, and more.
Copyright Melissa Iwai, courtesy of us.macmillan.com
Back at home the little girl and her mom chop the vegetables, put the ingredients in a pot, and simmer the soup until its steamy. While they wait they play games and read together. Later the girl and her mother add spices and alphabet pasta to the bubbling soup. When Daddy comes home they enjoy the delicious meal.
Copyright Melissa Iwai, courtesy of us.macmillan.com
Smoothly integrated into the story are lessons in counting and shapes, which makes the book one that would be fun to replicate with older children—in fact there is a recipe for soup on the last page!
Copyright Melissa Iwai, courtesy of us.macmillan.com
Iwai’s bold, vivid images are tantalizing. As you turn through the pages you can almost taste the fresh vegetables and wish you could grab some of that produce for yourself. The sweet expressions of the girl and her mother show how much they enjoy spending time together making this special meal.
Ages 2 – 6
Henry Holt, Christy Ottaviano Books, New York, 2010 | ISBN 978-0805090048
Homemade Soup Day Activity
Make Silly Soup
You can create Silly Soup from anything but the kitchen sink in the kitchen sink! Just gather a bunch of fun “ingredients” and stir them together to make soup fit for a…monster? Ogre? Fairy? Your favorite stuffed animal? Who would you like to feed?
Note for Parents: This can be a fun way to teach your child about different foods and kitchen tools. Let your child see and smell different spices as they add them to their soup. Explain the different shapes of pasta. You can even teach about color by combining food colorings to see what happens. Add a science-based experiment by letting your child watch what happens to butter, sugar, or salt when they are placed in warm water.
When all the ingredients are added, use a variety of kitchen tools to stir it up! Show your child a big serving spoon, slotted spoon, whisk, spatula, ladle, teaspoons, and whatever other tool they may like to use.
*Remember, Silly Soup is just for making, not for eating!
Supplies
- Big pot or bowl
- Food coloring
- Sprinkles
- Glitter
- Spices
- Small pasta pieces
- Butter
- Sugar
- Anything of your choice
Directions
- Add water to pot or bowl
- Add ingredients
- Stir
- Make up a story about who will eat your soup!
