Mud

Mud

Mud play is becoming increasingly popular in early childhood education. Playing in mud can be one of childhood's most memorable moments and the only things required are dirt and water.

Some childcare services let children splash in puddles after rain, while others have dedicated mud patches all year round and top them up with tank water.

EYLF learning outcomes

Mud fits perfectly into the Early Years Learning Framework as it is a natural material (4.4) that allows children to get up close with nature (2.4).

Mud play is expressive and emerging science. The EYLF encourages curiosity, imagination, creativity (4.1), problem solving, inquiry, experimentation, hypothesising, researching and investigating (4.2).

Learning experiences

Manipulate mud

There are so many ways to get hands-on with mud. Children can dig, drip, mix, mould, paint, pour, roll, splat, stomp, strain, smell, squish and throw mud. Encourage them to manipluate it in new and creative ways.

Describe mud

It is almost impossible to play with mud without describing it. Early childhood educators can use this opportunity to expand children's vocabularies:

Damp, dirty, drippy, earthy, gooey, gloopy, gritty, grubby, murky, mucky, messy, oozy, slippery, slimy, soft, soupy, squelchy, squishy, sticky, thick, and wet. 

Make mud pies

Provide children with small bowls or shallow containers and demonstrate how to make mud pies. Children can decorate their pies with leaves and flowers. If enough children are interested in baking pies, open a pie shop! Other children can pretend to purchase pies and pay shopkeepers with pebbles or bark chips as pretend money.

Paint with mud

Children can paint with mud by adding it to pots of water. Provide them with brushes and let them know what parts of your outdoor area they can paint on (e.g. cement path, rocks).

Learning environments

Add these items to your mud patch

  • Natural materials you find in your playground. Go on a treasure hunt and collect leaves, sticks, stones, and flowers in a basket, and then add them to your mud.
  • Wooden logs, tree stumps, planks of timber, timber palettes, ladders, and boxes and crates for building and stacking.
  • Water, sand and dry dirt, for children to change the mud's consistency.

Use tools in your mud patch

  • Shovels, rakes and buckets.
  • Funnels, tubing and plastic pipes for pouring and transferring liquids.
  • Cooking utensils like pots, sieves, strainers, bowls, containers, measuring cups and cutlery.

Community connections

Build a mud kitchen

A mud kitchen project is an excellent way to connect with the community. Reach out to any volunteer organisations that undertake woodwork projects, like the Men's Shed, and ask if they would like to help you build one from recycled materials.

Explain that this is not just about your children receiving a new mud kitchen. The children will also benefit from learning about woodwork, the design and engineering process, and interacting with people from different generations.

If an elaborate mud kitchen (like #mudkitchens on Instagram) seems completely unattainable at your childcare centre, don't lose sleep over it! CELA published an excellent article that outlines the problem with mud kitchens. They can limit children's resourcefulness and imagination, and they are not too different from indoor plastic play kitchens. Loose wooden palettes and large metal bowls will be just as educational.

Resources 

Websites