Children Lead a Winter Soup Evening for Families at Gowrie at The Harbour

Gowrie at The Harbour recently hosted an incredible Winter Soup Evening that was planned and led by the children.

Within their classrooms, children worked together to decide on ingredients before writing their own shopping lists. Each room then took a small-group excursion to Woolworths Docklands, where children paid for the ingredients themselves. Along the way they built confidence moving through their local community, while practising early numeracy, literacy, decision-making and social confidence in a setting no worksheet would recreate.

Back at kinder, children turned their attention to the event. They decorated their own lanterns and helped design the outdoor space, working alongside educators to shape a garden ready for visitors. They also helped place solar lighting throughout the space. When the sun went down, children watched their lights switch on and got to see, properly, what they had built.

Throughout the evening, children guided families around and followed the schedules they had helped write. They encouraged one another constantly, without needing an adult to step in.

Sayuri, one of our RTO Trainers with a research background in teaching and learning opportunities with food, worked alongside children as they chopped vegetables and prepared the soup. As they worked, she encouraged them to engage their senses to experience the smell and textures of vegetables and herbs, and invited their hypothesis on whether the vegetables get bigger or smaller when cooked.

Cooking and eating offers children opportunities to engage with and explore the natural world around them in embodied and sensory ways,” explains Sayuri. “It was beautiful to witness educators supporting children to express their own thoughts and ideas. The community coming together in the evening and sharing the soup also emphasised how food nourishes relationships between children, adults and the broader world.

Cooking with children opens conversations well beyond the kitchen bench, something our educators at Carlton Learning Precinct have written about too.

Children’s curiosity led to a few good tangents along the way. One group asked whether chocolate might go in the soup. Rather than ruling the idea out, educators helped children investigate alternatives, and the group landed on nut-free, allergy-friendly cocoa biscuits instead. Kinder children baked a batch themselves and sent every family home with one.

The event was supported by Woolworths Docklands, who backed the evening with a gift card, letting children buy the ingredients for both the soup and the biscuits.

On the night, children, families, educators and members of the wider community came together outside the usual daily routine to share a meal. Feedback from families afterwards was warm, with many parents commenting on the atmosphere and how proud their children were of what they had built.

Community connection is a regular thread at The Harbour. Families might remember the dynamic play event we ran for local families exploring the sights and sounds of Docklands. Soup night sits alongside stories like these, built from children’s ideas and carried out largely by children’s hands.

We’re already talking with families about making soup night an annual event, and we’re looking forward to seeing what the children plan next time.

If you are searching for an early learning service to enrol your child, send us an enquiry and request a tour, and our team will be in touch.