We've just got ourselves a mud kitchen and here are three simple and engaging ways we've played with it.
My kids are 2 and 6 years old and have always had fun playing outside. We recently splashed out on a mud kitchen (ours is from The Monarch Studio Shop and is the double sink with shelf model), something I have been wanting to get the kids for ages. They have been playing hard with it! Often the play is completely undirected and free, but from time to time I will set up a more guided invitation to play. Here are three activities which have successfully engaged both big bro and baby sis.
Nature Cupcake Store
This is one of our all-time favorite activities for outdoor adventuring. Simply set up the mud kitchen with lots of fun baking utensils, cupcake tins and liners, old containers and shakers, and you can even add some play money to the mix! A pestle and mortar is another fun addition.
Simply collect as many different materials from nature by going on a nature walk. Encourage exploration of new materials from the yard, talking about smells, textures and looks with each new find.
Then get baking! Watch as your kids enjoy mixing grass, sticks, rocks, dirt... and mine even insisted on adding some water to their cupcakes.
I always love watching how they use the materials they have available to them. They both loved crushing up the acorns and sticks with the pestle and mortar. Big bro also had a great idea to use the sticks to stir the cupcake batter.
My kids enjoyed being the bosses of their own little cupcake store, you'd be amazed at what they charged though!! This is a great link to numeracy, as well as nurturing imaginative play and collaboration.
Changing Water with Chalk
Chalk might not be the most obvious addition to a mud kitchen, but my kids love it! I fill the bins with some water, put out various chalk crushing and grating tools, as well as some containers and let them loose!
Big bro thinks it is really cool that he gets to use a grater to make chalk shavings which then color his water. Of course baby sis wants in on the action too, but this requires some supervision.
Using the pestle and mortar, as well as some blunt knives on a chopping board were also of interest to both kids.
This activity is a great opportunity to work on some color mixing exploration. For baby sis this mainly consists of identifying colors and how they change, for big bro it is also about trying to predict the new colors that will be made.
I love how this activity fosters a sense of team work. Some of the skills are a bit tricky for baby sis, but big bro will happily help out and work with baby sis to help her color her water too. A great opportunity for him to develop some leadership skills.
Pantry Pies
Your pantry is full of awesome mud kitchen sensory play materials. We raided ours to find some fun pretend pie ingredients. I set them out in the mud kitchen, along with lots of utensils and cake tins. We used some leftover sand play dough as the pastry.
My kids often enjoy making pretend food from sensory bins, but having an actual kitchen setting, along with stove rings was pretty special.
They both worked hard to fill their cake tins, telling each other what flavors were going in their pies. Listening to their conversations always melts my heart.
I always find that it helps to include lots of different materials to explore. Hence there were plenty of pie ingredients, and kitchen utensils.
As with any food-based role play activity, encouraging imagination and the freedom to be as creative as you like are crucial. This will really help to build collaborative learning, as well as confidence to explore new sensory materials.
Do you have a mud kitchen? What are your favorite activities and do your kids play collaboratively with it? Our mud kitchen by The Monarch Studio Shop is definitely already getting loads of play!
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