Paper Soup - Poetry Activity for Toddlers

In September and October I am running a series of Saturday sessions at Stratford Circus for 2-4 year olds, focusing on poetry and the spoken word. Whilst I have worked with children of this age on a number of occasions, this will be my first experience leading sessions (as opposed to just giving little performances). Obviously I am not expecting them to write anything themselves, but I do want them to be active, involved and stimulated by poetry.

The following idea is not entirely original, but I have adapted it and made it my own. It is really very simple. Each child gets a large sheet of coloured paper, which they have to rip up into pieces. Each child then takes it in turns to come to the front and put the paper in a big bowl to make a 'soup'. They can stir it with a spoon. Whilst each child is going this, the group recites this rhyme, along with the appropriate actions:

Paper Soup

Paper soup

Paper soup

Rip the pieces up

Paper soup

Paper soup

Put them in a cup

Paper soup

Paper soup

Stir it round and round

Paper soup

Paper soup

Listen to the sound

Paper soup

Paper soup

Have a little taste

Paper soup

Paper soup

Pull a funny face!

Finally, each child grabs a handful of the 'soup' and sticks the pieces onto paper plates, to make their own yummy meal. (Just don't let them eat it, for God's sake!)