Tag Archives: #outdoorplay

Getting busy in the Mud Kitchen

You might be wondering how playing in a mud kitchen can be educational. Well, let’s find out:

During mud kitchen play, kids explore various soil types, textures, and material transformations. They observe how mud changes with water and experiment with different natural elements. This activity also introduces early math concepts like measurements and proportions as they scoop, pour, and mix mud. Teamwork, cooperation, and sharing blossom in the mud kitchen, enhancing social skills. The kitchen’s open canvas sparks imagination, letting children be chefs, scientists, or nature artists, opening doors to endless creativity.

So let’s see what happened in the Cart Mill Mud Kitchen today.

First we foraged the garden and collected lots of different plants to use during our play. They will make fantastic ingredients for the items on the menu today. We found pea pods, pea shoots, dock leaves, clovers and mint in the garden.

The children decided that on todays menu was “Beans and pea pie”

Next our little chefs set out to start cooking in the mud kitchen.  Exploring their imagination they worked together to chop the leaves on the chopping boards.  They scooped water using ladles, spoons and cups and mixed the mud and sand together in pots, pans and bowls.

“We need to turn the gas on to cook them”

”Chopping them all up so it’s small”

”Pour the water in the kettle”

”Mixing it all together”

One of the children opened some of the pea pods we found in the garden and explored what he found inside. “They are green beans”

The finished result! Look at the fantastic creation ready to be served.

Article 6- I should be supported to live and grow

Article 28 – I have the right to an education

Different ways to move our bodies 🤸🏻 🏃‍♂️

Today in the garden we had lots of fun moving our bodies in different ways and developing our gross motor skills! Gross motor skills are the skills which children develop using their whole body movements.

By increasing movements of their whole bodies, children become more flexible, confident and agile.

The children discovered a different way to cross the beam and move in and out the tyres… on their knees!!

R ” I can jump in and out the tyres”

M, R and P all practiced their balancing skills and demonstrated confidence when crossing the balancing beam on the obstacle course.. well done!!

Balancing helps children to understand concepts such as gravity and helps children to develop better concentration skills.

 

M demonstrated good use of her gross motor skills by balancing on the side of the tyres whilst crossing them. ”If I hold out my arms it helps me to balance”.

G showed confidence, strength and determination to climb up the climbing wall in the garden. She was able to use her hands to help her balance at the top whilst climbing onto the bars at the top with her knees. Well done G! Climbing plays a key role in early childhood gross motor skill development.

 

What ways can you develop your gross motor skills at home or out in the community? Share your pictures with us!

Article 6 : I have the right to live and grow. Article 31: I have a right to relax and play 

 

Ice ice baby! ❄️

We noticed on the weather forecast that it was to be extremely cold today.. so we decided to try a science experiment!

Last night, we covered our sea animals with water and left them overnight to see what would happen…

it turned to ICE!!!

The children discussed how the water felt to touch…

” it is so cold I need to wear my gloves”

”if we scrape it, it makes little marks on the ice”

Through exploring cause and effect, the children wondered how we could break the ice?
“we could hit it and it will break maybe”, “we could maybe scrape the ice like daddy does on the car” , “what about a hammer”.

so first we tried with little wooden hammers to break the ice, the children discovered that it chipped the ice a little bit but not enough to break the ice.

So then we borrowed one of the hammers from our tinker table…

“Look Sarah Jane it’s working now!”

”We can free the animals from the ice”!