International Mud Day 2014!

It's finally here!  We've been talking about this day all month, and prepping for it all week.  International Mud Day is one of our favorite days at school!  International Mud Day (read about it at this link http://www.worldforumfoundation.org/working-groups/nature/international-mud-day/) is actually June 29th each year, but as it falls on a weekend this year, we celebrated on Friday, June 27th.

In the morning we did two cooking activities: the children rolled little smokies in crescent dough to create "pigs in a blanket" for lunch...

 ...and made chocolate pudding, a key ingredient in "muds and dirt" for snack.

 At snack time everyone had a turn beating chocolate cookies into crumbs, which we used to top our pudding.

 Muds and Dirt anyone?  Oh yes!

For this particularly busy day, one of my "graduates" came back to play reminisce help me.  She read stories, helped with crafts, played puzzles, and was a lot of help.  It was really fun to watch her face when we did activities she remembered!

The grand finale of our week, of course, was playing in the mud.  I offered 3 levels of muddy commitment, so everyone could choose where they were most comfortable.  There was the table with dry dirt and plastic trucks and scoops, for the kiddos who really didn't want to get muddy, or wanted a break from the mud.

There was a "mud pie" station, with mud, water, pie pans, cups, scoops... a mid level muddy choice.  Almost all the kiddos chose to play at this station at least part of the time.

Finally, for the adventurous, we had a plastic play pool full of mud, to wallow in!  The kiddos started off cautiously, mostly walking in the mud, or splashing their legs a little...

 

... but once a few of them braved the wallow, others joined on in!

Here we are, enjoying International Mud Day!

So surely some of you are wondering whether the teacher got muddy, or just took photos?  Are you kidding?!  This is a lot of fun!  About half way through the mud play I handed my camera to a parent, and joined on in.  I don't know that I was the muddiest, but it was close! 

When we had had enough, and the parents were ready to take their kiddos home, we scooped up the mud, and took it to the vegetable garden.

Yes, we had to rinse off... a lot... in the sprinkler.  No, none of the parents got muddy, and yes, they surely had to put down towels to keep their cars clean, and bathe some dirty dirty kiddos once they got home.  Still,  look at these smiles.

This is an experience I hope the children never, ever forget, and make sure they pass on to their own children.  Happy International Mud day!