Nursery World - Enabling Environments: Collections

This natural material opens up opportunities for children to
experiment and explore both real and imaginary worlds - and a mud
kitchen makes a good central point.

Mud makes an exciting addition to the outdoor role-play area or home corner. Not only do children like the scientific element of combining water and soil to make different concoctions, they also enjoy handling, moulding, patting and mixing mud, watching it dry in the sun, and serving it. Setting up a mud kitchen in your outdoor area will provide endless opportunities for role play and will enrich children's well-being, development and learning.

Jan White, an independent early childhood consultant specialising in outdoor play, is author of Making a Mud Kitchen, which is part of the 2014 Mud Pack launched this week by www.muddyfaces.co.uk in the run-up to International Mud Day on 29 June.

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