Mud kitchens have caught the imagination of practitioners and parents alike. The Mud Kitchen Facebook page, which was set up in 2013, showcases hundreds of examples of the rich learning that’s taking place as children engage with nature and concoct new potions in their outdoor kitchens. Not only is the range and individuality of the kitchens impressive – they are made from anything from wooden pallets to converted baby-changing tables – but also the ways in which the practice is evolving.
Jan White, an independent early childhood consultant specialising in outdoor play, and co-author of the Making a Mud Kitchen booklet, says, ‘We’re in the early days of this next phase of development – and it’s exciting. Since the launch of the booklet with Liz Knowles of Muddyfaces in 2012, I am thrilled that so many settings have a mud kitchen as part of their core provision. In fact, I think the introduction of the mud kitchen has been a gateway to people understanding what outdoor play is all about.
‘Now it’s time to review our mud kitchens and get the children involved in the process by asking, how is the mud kitchen working? Do we need to move it; add more surface areas for collaborative working or create two mud kitchens? What resources can we add to it in order to enhance children’s learning?’
IN PRACTICE
Quackers Playgroup in York has a mud kitchen that takes up a large proportion of the outdoor area. Over the years, it has evolved based upon observations of how children use the space, and it is now the focus of a PhD thesis by the owner and co-founder, Menna Godfrey.
She says, ‘I built our first mud kitchen in 2013, with two old Galt kitchen cupboards back-to-back and a trellis in between. The children were already interested in mixing with water, sand and stones, but I hadn’t heard of mud kitchens at the time.
‘From then on the development just happened. It’s been about observing their play and, if they have an idea or want to move it or extend it, we try to make it happen. For example, there’s an old table that the children moved into the kitchen over a year ago because they wanted more work space, and we’ve added storage-like hooks for pots and pans. We’ve also added a high corrugated roof to keep the worst of the rain off so that the children play for longer in wet weather. The rain water feeds into a water butt, which the children have free access to but is limited to one full tank a day.’
The mud kitchen offers lots of planks and crates that often the children – boys, in particular – use to build new surfaces, such as barbecue areas. Mrs Godfrey says, ‘This is where they bring the bowls and add water, sand, mud and enjoy mixing. I often put provocations in the mud kitchen area, such as cherry blossom that children add into their mud mixtures. They also have access to a herb garden with mint, thyme and sage.
‘The ethos here is that this is an area where you can explore in as many ways as you want. It’s the children’s space and they have the opportunity to extend it and evolve its use in a way that suits them.’
A FAMILIAR SETTING
One of the driving forces of the mud kitchen’s success and popularity is the fact that a kitchen is a familiar place that is often the hub of the family home, and this opens up all sorts of possibilities for play and language development.
Mrs Godfrey explains, ‘Children come and go to make cups of tea, find food and drop off stuff. Sometimes it is a gathering place, where children meet, eat, mix, socialise and simply hang out. Other times, children make mud cakes to take into the willow teepee for a picnic.’
She emphasises that it is a non-gender-specific place. ‘We get boys working in there that we wouldn’t see indoors in the domestic home corner. There’s also a rich flow of conversation. They will talk about time in a way that gives us deeper insights into what they understand, using statements like, “It will be ready later”, or “I’m putting it in the oven for 10 minutes”, while turning the wooden dial on the microwave and saying “beep, beep”.’
Mrs Godfrey observes that there is rarely a dispute in the mud kitchen. ‘Children have an overwhelming desire to be in this place and engage with it; there’s a lot of self-regulation that’s taking place and they have the ability to negotiate and change rules between themselves without an adult having to get involved.’
EXPLORATION
Another key attraction of the mud kitchen is the experimentation that takes place.
Julie Mountain, director of Play Learning Life, says, ‘Children can speculate as to what might happen when they mix up mud and berries, but they don’t know for certain. I tend to think of these areas as labs rather than kitchens, and I think that practitioners are recognising and responding to children’s need to test and experiment and “do it for themselves” and are beginning to see the potential for supporting the use of complex and sophisticated language, involving quantities, shapes and spaces, as this learning is taking place.’
STARTING POINTS
Setting up a mud kitchen can be as simple as providing a bed of soil, a collection of bowls and spoons and a water supply. While some settings undoubtedly buy their mud kitchens directly from suppliers, Ms Mountain says that most settings she has visited are curating their own mud labs or kitchens, collecting resources from parents, charity shops, pound shops and jumble sales and making the ‘most incredible mud labs using pallets, crates and wood offcuts’.
Parents, too, seem to have embraced the mud kitchen idea, and lots of settings have had theirs made by parents.
Jan White says that if families have donated items for the mud kitchen, they are more likely to be involved and on board.
TIPS
Here are some tips for resourcing a mud kitchen:
- Provide an abundance of resources. One or two bowls and spoons will cause conflict and unhappiness when lots of children want to play together; 20 bowls and spoons will enable everyone to participate.
- A more generously equipped mud lab will include jugs and other pouring vessels, pipettes and basters, which are really excellent for hand strength and control; large water holders, which are great for building upper-body strength as they are moved around; whisks and ladles; sieves and colanders; jars and bottles; chopping boards and a wide variety of utensils.
- Containers should have quantities marked on wherever possible to reinforce the role of number in everyday life.
- Ideally, children should have access to a running water supply – for example, a hosepipe or hand pump – but where this isn’t possible, a very large water container with a tap on is a suitable alternative. Where potable water isn’t available, for example, and water is coming from a water butt or water feature, additional care needs to be taken with hand hygiene.
- Ensure that there are plenty of work surfaces, at child height, to allow children to mix, stir, pour and create.
- If using a commercially bought mud kitchen, make sure that there is also a bench or table that children can work on and take resources to because this will extend language and co-operation skills.
- If using indoor wooden furniture, add a coat of good yacht varnish to help to protect it.
- Be prepared for your mud kitchen to evolve over time. Invite children to think about how the mud kitchen is working for them and any changes that it would benefit from.
- Gravel, pebbles and other natural materials are good for making concoctions and for representing spices and condiments.
For more tips on planning and resources, see box and visit http://bit.ly/1rmr0vq.
EXTENDING LEARNING
Many of the utensils used in the mud kitchen provide excellent opportunities for hand development. For example, as set out in Jan White’s book, Every Child a Mover: A practical guide to providing young children with the physical opportunities they need(Early Education 2015), experiences that develop ‘awareness, feeling, dexterity and control in the hands involve using the hands in many different ways: to point, reach, grasp, grip, shake, stretch, squeeze, poke, squirt, hold, twist, hang, throw, stroke, smooth, press, pat, hit, bang, stamp, punch, stir, beat, pinch, pull, push, lever, sweep, brush, wipe, hold, handle, lift, carry, turn, mash, grind, whisk, and so on and on.’
Ms White says, ‘If a child shows an interest in whisking, practitioners can introduce a variety of resources, starting from a hand whisk, a cappuccino whisk, a hand rotary whisk and eventually a cream-maker, where you turn the top and the whisks inside spin.’
Ms Mountain says, ‘If a setting has money to spend, I’d say the best play value would be found from installing an outdoor tap if they don’t already have one, and buying a hosepipe with lots of exciting attachments and sprayers. If they have a bigger budget then a water pump that can be operated by children would be great.’
CORE RESOURCES
The Muddy Faces mud kitchen range, developed by Jan White, consists of four sets (£99.99 each): the Toddler & Twos set is designed to capture children’s core passions in gathering, filling, pouring, emptying, stirring, mixing and transforming; the Perfumes & Lotions set includes resources that focus on transferring and filling, mixing and stirring, transforming and creating, pouring, dropping, sloping, rolling, garnishing and decorating; the Spells & Potions set of open-ended resources stimulates themes and actions within children’s play and encourages large and dramatic movements; and the Ice Creams & Desserts set contains more intricate resources, promoting fine motor skills and attention to detail. Visit www.muddyfaces.co.uk and search for the names of the individual sets.
Kitchen Corner Units (£349.99), Large Mud Pie Kitchen (£189) and Outside Kitchen & Store (£199) are all available from www.cosydirect.com.
Outdoor Wooden Messy Concoctions Bench (£599.95), Potion Bottles (£19.99 for six) and a Super Large Spoon (£39.95) are at www.tts-group.co.uk.
See Early Excellence’s (www.earlyexcellence.com) Mud Kitchen Collection (£795).
Eden Play (http://edenplay.co.uk) provides modular mud kitchens with built-in storage.
OUTDOOR CLOTHING
Waterproof World offers the Ocean Stars Print matching jacket and trousers (£36.99), and Ocean dungarees (£18.50), at waterproofworld.co.uk. Raindrops (www.raindrops.co.uk) is another Scandinavian supplier providing hard-wearing, colourful, waterproof dungarees and jackets. Check out waterproof clothing sets from TTS, starting at £14.95, at www.tts-group.co.uk. Muddy Puddles (https://www.muddypuddles.com) has classic wellies (£12), and its Puddleflex Bib and Brace is great for young children(£28).
MORE INFORMATION
For a full range of resources, visit:
www.muddyfaces.co.uk/documents
Mud Pack 2015, www.muddyfaces.co.uk/download/mudpack2015.zip
Making a Mud Kitchen, www.muddyfaces.co.uk/download/Making_a_mud_kitchen_english.pdf
International Mud Day (29 June), www.muddyfaces.co.uk/mudday.php
Play Learning Life, www.playlearninglife.org.uk
Eden Play, http://edenplay.co.uk/galleries/mud-kitchen
