Mud kitchens

**mumofone** · 05-12-2016, 09:58 AM

Do any of you have a mud kitchen? Do you want one/not like them? If you have one what do you find they are good for and do you feel they've enhanced your setting, which areas of learning and age ranges have they been good for?

**loocyloo** · 05-12-2016, 12:21 PM

Originally Posted by mumofone

Do any of you have a mud kitchen? Do you want one/not like them? If you have one what do you find they are good for and do you feel they've enhanced your setting, which areas of learning and age ranges have they been good for?

I have a mud kitchen ... but no mud! We used it with soil and water once and everything was covered and then no one wanted to play. Usually just water now and assorted stones/ shells/ leaves/grass /flowers although sand sometimes features. It gets used alot, but depends on the children ... i have 2 3 yr old boys who love it and a 4 yr old who is not bothered!
At the moment though it is covered in leaves and needs a good clean and tidy!

DH made mine out of a nest of tables ... he cut a hole in one for a washing up bowl to sit in, and marked a 'hob' on another table. The last table has a plastic washing up rack on it and some plastic baskets are attached to the fence behind it. All the pots and pans and bottles are in a vegetable rack under one of the tables.

**Mouse** · 05-12-2016, 12:35 PM

I have an outdoor kitchen, but it's not used for mud. The thought of it makes me shudder! Most of the time the children just use it as a cooker as they have access to sand & water tables, but I don't mind if they take sand or water to it.

The children do play with soil, but only when I set it up in the tuff spot. They have water, spoons, pots etc to play with in it, but once the activity is finished the mud is cleaned away and we're back to sand and water. They also have an area for digging, but the soil stays there and isn't moved anywhere else.

My outdoor kitchen is currently plastic and I am looking to change it to a wooden, mud kitchen like one, but it still won't be used for mud!

**Maza** · 05-12-2016, 08:54 PM

Like the others have mentioned, I have an outdoor kitchen but no mud. It is probably my most popular resource year in year out. It is a wooden kitchen that I got from a charity shop and I have at least two, sometimes three little tables next to it so that the children have space to mix pour, serve etc. One of my favourite pass times is going in charity shops/jumble sales and looking in the bric a brac section for random ladels, jugs, trays, spoons etc. I started off with one real pan from a jumble sale and a few plastic ones from ELC. Every single time there was a race for the real one and I knew I just had to build up my collection of real pans. I use balti dishes and cooking trays/muffin tins from Poundland and have some silicone cupcake cases that are weather proof. It has all been so cheap to source. The children use it with sand, water, stones, pine cones, leaves, herbs etc. When I empty out my cupboards and find out of date herbs and spices I take them down to the garden too. We take playdough out too - I hate playdough being confined to one table in a playroom or classroom.

Last week I met up with a family who I used to childmind for. The mum brought along her two year old and she was just desperate to play with our coffees, milk, sugar, stirrers etc. I gave her my jug of left over milk and my saucer and her mum 'half' let her do a bit of mixing. I was desperate to bring her to my garden to let her experience proper potion making without worrying about making a mess. Both her brothers used to love it.

Age ranges - my one year olds have loved it and DD's 8 year old friends still ask if they can play in it when they come for playdates. None of them have anything like it at home. I've got some wonderful observations from it for all of my EYFS children covering all areas of learning - not all at once, but as part of your continuous provision you can develop their learning in every area over time.

They get plenty of experience with mud when walking in the woods. A couple of times we did take some utensils to the woods to play in the mud, but I don't encourage it in my garden.