To pay a little tribute to this wonderful blog and extend an obsession of my son lately, I thought we’d explore CARROTS today! Cooking with Kids is such a wonderful learning activity.
A few days ago my 2 year-old son spotted this bunch of carrots with their tops still on and just had to have them. It probably had a little something to do with the fact that we’ve been reading lots of rabbit stories lately and that he’s been using carrots or “snowman noses” as he calls them for all of our winter snowmen.
One of our favorite bunny books this season is Carrot Soup by John Segal.
Rabbit prepares the land, orders the carrot seeds, plants, waters, weeds and waits all in anticipation of being able to make his favorite meal- carrot soup. But, when Rabbit goes to pick his carrots, they are gone. As he searches for them without any luck, he returns home to find that all his animal friends had picked them and prepared carrot soup for a surprise party for him. At the end of the story is a simple and healthy recipe for carrot soup. We decided that we would make the soup for dinner one night.
After reading Marnie’s post on pretend play (authentic experiences) not long ago, I decided to let my son play with some of the “real” ingredients while I prepped the work area for us to cook.
It was amazing to observe him while he made his soup. He peeled the skin off of the onion and rubbed it between his fingers. He bit the carrot. He problem solved getting all the ingredients to fit in the pot. He practiced his pouring skills. He developed language skills as he worked. He played for over 30 minutes with these ingredients and then announced that he needed a bowl to pour the soup into for the “hop hop”. Then, he wanted to take the bowl outside for the rabbit he sees in our yard from time to time.
I love watching children make connections between books and their own life. These experiences are helping to develop literacy skills for years to come.
What connections have you seen your children make to books they are reading? We’d love to hear your ideas.
Thanks for visiting!
Jodie