Have you considered putting a mud kitchen on your playground?

If so, I would like to share my two cents worth.  Consider a movable mud kitchen.

A simple movable mud kitchen provides children with the raw materials to create whatever they can imagine.  It is open-ended and . . . . well. . . . movable.

I can still remember making mud pies for my pet dachshund, Bobo. My mother gave me old pots and pans, spoons and measuring cups in the backyard. I would use a bench and pretend to be a dog chef.

No specially built mud kitchen.

Just me, dirt, water and real pots and pans.

Here's how a local outdoor preschool set up their mud kitchen. It is old fashioned goodness.

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Basic materials:

A bench or plank of wood sitting on top of cinder blocks or stack of wood.

Tree stumps

A steel wire shelf

Buckets

Bowls

Cups

Strainers

Tea pots

Pots and pans

Spoons

Ladles

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A simple plank of wood sitting on cinder blocks or wood pieces.  A tree stump.

Ask a local builder for wood scraps.

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A steel wire shelf to store mud kitchen supplies.

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Assorted mud kitchen items.  Enamel tea pot, cups, pots, and buckets.

Here’s a peek at the movable mud kitchen in action. . .

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A tea party being prepared for the fairies.  Notice the little rock cupcakes and the bark bread?

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Young doctors prepare a healing bath for some sad worms.

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A simple movable mud kitchen can become anything.

I have a brand new magazine called Methods. It is free!

The first issue is all about Messy Play!  Inside this issue I share some of my favorite messy play activities for water, mud, clay, petals and more.

 Click here for my favorite Messy Play in the first issue of Methods Magazine.

I'd love to hear about your “mud kitchens” – past and present!  Do you offer mud play?  Did you engage in mud play as a child?