International Mud Day is annually celebrated on 29th June.

In 2009 a teacher from a school in Western Australia and a teacher from Nepal both belonging to a Nature Action Collaborative, discussed the challenges their children faced when playing in mud. They noted the lack of mud in Perth as it is situated on a sandy plain and also the reluctance of their culture to ‘get dirty.’ In Nepal, they had lots of mud, but many children did not have enough clothes to be able to get them dirty or soap to wash them. The children in Australia decided they could send clothes to the children in Nepal so that they could play in the mud. Instead they raised money for the school in Nepal to buy clothes. Since then the two groups have celebrated and played in the mud together, although in different countries. What began as an exchange between the children of Nepal and Australia, is now an idea shared throughout the world! Mud is free for everyone to play with, you just need your imagination to explore.

Lets shake off “don’t get dirty” to “get dirty”.

This week is going to be a challenge after all the hot weather, but I’m sure with all your creativity and great imagination you’ll be busy for hours playing with mud, but if you need any ideas here’s a few.

MUD PAINT

Ingredients: Mud, powder paint/paint/food colouring, pots, washing up liquid, water, cardboard and painting implements – brushes, sticks, fingers etc.

Directions:

• Put a large scoop of mud to each container.

• Add a colour source from the ingredients list use 1

- 2 tablespoons of each colour.

• Next add a squirt of washing up liquid. It helps

the mud paint spread easier on paper.

• Mix it up with small amount of water to reach

the texture you want.

• Paint away!

MUD DOUGH

Ingredients: soil, water, vegetable oil, large bowl, corn flour

Method:

• Add one cup of water and one cup of

vegetable oil into a large bowl.

• Add up to six cups of soil. Adding one cup

at a time and mixing as you go. If you

have dry dirt you won’t need as many

cups to make your dough.

• Use corn flour as needed for dirt that is

extra moist.

• Knead all of the ingredients together to make a mouldable mud dough.

• Now make anything you want!

MUD BRICKS

Once you have your mud dough why not make it into bricks? What can you build?

If you have an ice cube tray you could use that or mould with your hands.

MUD PIE MASTERCHEF

Some make pies. Others make soup. Lots like stew.

Whatever you like to eat, it can be made in a mud kitchen.

Hot chocolate anyone? What variety of cakes, pies, smoothies can you make?

Why not challenge someone to be the Mud Pie Masterchef Champion 2020?

DINOSAUR SWAMP

If you have any little dinosaurs then let them hang out in the mud for a while, like hippos, they enjoy wallowing in mud. Put little twigs, ferns and big leaves sticking upright. This creates a miniature “Jurassic Park”. Or take your favourite plastic animals to a watering hole and let them wallow in the nearby mud. Create a mini mud world for them to live in.

MUD BETWEEN YOUR TOES

On hot days it can be very cooling to let your feet have a mud bath. Watch them dry and crack in the sun before washing off.

Make muddy footprints.

Find a patch of mud to walk through in your bare feet. If you can find one, make a bucket of muddy water, it will feel the same.

Can you make the mud ooze between your toes?

MUDDY STORYTIME

https://worldforumfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Who-Likes-Mud-Book.pdf

https://worldforumfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/The-Mud-Book.pdf

DRIPPY CASTLES

Scoop up a handful of wet, dripping mud. Turn your hand upside down and let the mud drip through your fingers and thumb to the ground. Soon a little mound will form which will grow in size as you add more drippy mud.

Can you create mud spires and peaks? Make a line or circle of drippy castles.

POEMS AND SONGS

Do you know any songs or poems to do with mud? Do your family?

Could you write your own? Sticky, gooey, slimey, squishy are good words to describe mud to help you get started.

It’s time to blow out the twigs on your mud cake and make a big splattery wish for more outdoor play, with a large dollop of physical connection to the natural world.

Happy Mud Day.

Have sooooo mud fun!

Mrs Morris