Mud Play Activities

Getting your hands dirty is fun and healthy. It’s totally worth the cleanup for the huge benefits including gut health, healthy immune system, and emotional and creative health [4]. Did you know that dirt and mud can offer an immune system boost and mental health lift all from playing in the mud? It’s true. Let your kids get in the mud and have fun with these mud play activities this spring.

Mud Activities

All of these activities will involve getting dirty. It’s a good thing and a giant mess. Get the sprinkler or hose out for the clean-up. Don’t forget to get a few extras: flower petals, leaves, twigs, and small stones. They can make any kind of mud into anything the imagination can come up with.

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Tuff Spot Mud Kitchen

Make your own mud kitchen. The Gingerbread House used household kitchen things. You can find a ton of cheap things at the dollar store. Then all you need is mud and things to decorate with.

Mud Ice Cream

Make muddy ice cream cones from Sweet Silly Sara. It’s a simple activity that needs, bowls, spoons, old ice cream cones, and sprinkles. That and lots of mud. Use different kinds of dirt to make different “flavors” of ice cream. Just remember that it’s mud and not ice cream.

Mud Bricks

Making mud bricks take a little bit of prep work but it great for homeschooling activity if you’re studying Egypt or any other ancient culture that makes mud bricks. Imaginative Homeschool makes small brick models. Build what you want once you have your bricks.

Medicine Mud Kitchen Activity

Enhance your mud soup with other kitchen products like pasta, rice, sugar, coffee, and salt. Make this mud medicine soup from the book George’s Marvelous Medicine used by the Gingerbread House blog. Don’t forget to gather some flowers, small stones, sticks, and leaves.

The Mud Pie Bakery Party

This was a mud pie bakery birthday party, inspired by Nikki’s (creator of Tikkido) favorite mud pie cookbook from when she was a kid. This is a super creative birthday party idea for the spring or summer. Don’t forget to warn the parents so they’re ready to take home some messy kids.

Making Mud Cakes in our Mud Kitchen

Make mud cakes in the muffin tins. It’s easier with muffin papers. You’ll need mud, little stones, flowers, small sticks, and a place to play. Dry them in the sun and leave them for the fairies like they are at The Gingerbread House.

Mud play is about fun, it engages all the senses, and should be a normal part of outdoor play.
~ H. Moser

Science Behind the Health Benefits Mud Play

Scientists have found this bacteria in the soil called Mycobacterium Vaccae. It’s a healthy bacteria that actually found a long time ago that helped heal many ailments and is used in immunotherapy today. [2]

“[D]irt contains microscopic bacteria called Mycobacterium vaccae which stimulates the immune system and increases the levels of serotonin in our brains, an endorphin that soothes, calms, and helps us to relax. Scientists say regular exposure to the bacteria may help reduce a child’s vulnerability to depression. In short, playing in mud makes you happier!” [1]

Children still need a childhood with dirt, mud, puddles, trees, sticks, and tadpoles.
~ Brooke Hampton

Learning Benefits from Mud Play

Mud is an amazing creative median. You can create so many things. It’s an open-ended playtime that kids need. Mud is just plain fun. It teaching your child to connect with nature, create new things, and play with what they have.

Your child can develop fine and gross motor skills with this play. Social development comes from play with others in the mud. [5]

Digging in the mud can uncover the world of insects under the ground. You might find worms and other creatures. You can study this creatures hands on.

As for sensory play so versatile. Different amounts of water and dirt; different kinds of dirt; and adding leaves, stones, and flowers; create different feelings in your hands, under your toes, and things to smell and see.

In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.
~ Margaret Atwood

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Resources

[1] The Benefits of Mud Play by Michelle Rupiper https://www.communityplaythings.com/resources/articles/2016/the-benefits-of-mud-play

[2] Wikipedia Article on Mycobacterium Vaccae https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycobacterium_vaccae

[3] Why Playing in the Mud is More than Just Fun BY Hyahno Moser https://natureplayqld.org.au/blog/why-playing-in-the-mud-is-more-than-just-fun

[4] Mud Play for Kids: Why It’s Worth the Mess by Noreen Iftikhar, MD https://www.healthline.com/health/childrens-health/mud-play

[5] The Magic of Dirt: 10 Benefits of Mud Play by Victoria Hackett https://handsonaswegrow.com/10-benefits-mud-play/