Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud!

Well, it looks like the rainy weather is set to continue for a while longer yet! If you are searching for further inspiration during this very wet time of year, then look no further. An exciting result of weeks of rain is the amount of MUD that is all around us at the moment! So, don’t delay, read on to find out how to have fun outside getting really dirty!

  1. Take your children outside for a walk to search for all the muddy places. Test each muddy patch and give it a score for its stickiness, how runny it is or how smooth it is.
  2. Ask the children to collect some mud and explore it with their hands. Then ask them to talk about how it feels and collect some great descriptive words to describe mud.
  3. Create a mini mud world with the children where they can add small world apparatus such as dinosaurs or hippos.
  4. “Missing mud” – explain to the children that they have to find a way to make a patch of mud go away. Let them experiment with different substances such as washing up liquid, water, sand to see if they can make the mud patch disappear.
  5. Provide the children with different textures of mud – wet and dry – to investigate the similarities and differences.
  6. Be brave! Take off shoes and socks and create a muddy foot bath where your children can cover their feet in mud, watch them dry and crack and then wash the mud off. A great opportunity for talk.
  7. Get your children to paint their feet with mud and then create a trail of muddy footprints.
  8. Create a mud kitchen with your children so that they can cook you up some delicious muddy recipes. There are some great ideas on the website muddyfaces.co.uk
  9. Hold a mud castle competition where the children have to create their own mud castles in whatever way they like. It could be with hands or buckets or any tools of their choice.
  10. Mud Splat! Mud is the new paint! Encourage your children to mix their own mud for painting, printing and mud splatting.
  11. Mud drawing – provide your children with a flat surface to smear mud all over. Let them choose a mark making tool of their choice and experiment with drawing and mark making.
  12. Get your children digging in the mud to discover what treasures they can find.
  13. Make some magic mud with your children. Take some mud, water, baking soda, powder paint and food colouring or crushed chalk. Once you have mixed all these ingredients together you can add vinegar to create an eruption!
  14. Experiment with textures by adding other things to mud such as seeds, glitter, rice, washing up liquid.

So, get your children outside  rolling up their sleeves, taking off their shoes and socks and feeling that mud squelching and oozing between their fingers and toes!

I like mud.

I like it on my clothes,

I like it in my fingers,

I like it on my toes.

Sand is pretty ordinary

And dust is no good.

To get really messy

I like mud.

(ANON)