5 Ways to Enhance Your Mud Kitchen this Autumn
Autumn is a wonderful season, full of so many learning opportunities for children as they connect with nature. This blog posts explores 5 ways you can easily enhance your mud kitchen this autumn to make the most of the season. Autumn provides us with many treasures that can make it fun as we explore, play and learn in the mud kitchen.
1. Add autumnal loose parts to the mud kitchen
Autumn provides lots of natural loose parts that can provide open-ended learning opportunities for children as they use their imagination in play. Here are some examples of things you can collect:
Acorns
Conkers
Different types and colours of leaves
Twigs and sticks
Chestnuts
Helicopter seeds
Fir Cones
A top tip for displaying them is to put them in open bowls or baskets so that the children can see what is inside.
2. Add balancing scales
Balancing scales are a great addition to the mud kitchen. Supporting children to develop an early mathematical understanding of weight and making comparisons; without needing to have developed their numerical understanding yet. Providing lots of opportunities for children to develop a rich mathematical language alongside peers and adults support learning and developing. And with all your autumn treasures you will have lots of things to compare of different weights, shapes and sizes to encourage children’s critical thinking and problem solving.
3. Mud kitchen recipes
Support children’s early literacy and mathematical development through having some special mud kitchen recipe cards designed for using in autumn. These cards have been developed and presented in different ways to support children in phase 2 or 3 phonics; and early mathematical skills e.g. number recognition or counting practise.
4. Seasonal vegetables and Fruit
Add seasonal vegetables, such as pumpkins, butternut squashes, crab apples and blackberries to the mud kitchen. Alongside safety knifes so that the children can explore cutting them up and adding them to their recipes.
5. Embrace the rain and dampness!
Along with warm autumn sunny days, we can also experience some lovely very damp and wet autumn days. Consider add a water butt or some kind of vessel that can collect the rain water each day (remember to empty at the end of the day to avoid legionnaires). And jugs and cylinders so that children can begin to measure, and mix in lots of water in their play.