Ruby Saltbush Preschool

DIERDRE AILA

Mud Making

Our preschool classes are so grateful to the parents who came to the working bee and helped create our new muddy piggy area, as well as all the parents who continuously replace the wet and dirty clothes with new spare clothes every day – this has been a much enjoyed and well used area these past few hot, sticky weeks!

We only need to watch children after a heavy shower of rain to see their delight in the puddle on the grass where ‘mud making’ often begins.

Mud provides a fantastic sensory experience and it provides endless opportunities for open-ended discovery and experimentation as the mud can vary from wet to dry and crumbly to rough, soft and smooth. It allows children to be creative as they mould it any way they wish.

Mud play also supports children’s physical development, both their large motor skills as they learn to ‘slip and slide’ and fine motor skills as they manipulate the mud with their hands. Children’s social play can be enriched through mud play as they cooperate, have fun, and create together.

In fact, in 2007, the University of Bristol found that ‘friendly’ bacteria in soil could be responsible for activating a group of neurons that produce serotonin, the chemical responsible for raising our mood. So, playing with mud not only helps to build children’s immune systems, but also makes us happy.

Mud connects children directly with nature and the plants and living creatures that inhabit that world. Mud play supports children to be more curious about the world.

As Finnish educator and scholar Pasi Sahlberg said in Let the Children Play, ‘The marks on children’s clothes, the pockets filled with sand, the paint in the hair—these are the indicators of architects, artists, and scientists in training. If we worry too much about wet or dirty clothing, we can place a real damper on the spirit of learning and self-discovery’.

Please enjoy these photos of our class thoroughly enjoying the spirit of learning and self-discovery!