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Mud Kitchen Tuff Spot Tray

Creating a mud kitchen on a tuff spot tray is a great way to create an inexpensive play kitchen that children will love to play and get creative with.



It's no secret that I love our tuff spot tray. They are such a great resource to use for open ended play. I love using our tuff spot tray as a base, it is great for containing mess! One of our favourite outdoor tuff spot play is a mud kitchen.

I've always wanted a mud kitchen for my children but always struggled to justify the price. But not wanting them to miss out, I made them a tuff spot mud kitchen instead. 


I've had this idea in my mind for a while and in an effort to keep the cost low, I used old kitchen utensils that were needing to be replaced. This activity is completely adaptable and you can choose what tools and utensils to use.

I included;

a loaf tin
a colander
a jug filled with water
a bowl of mud
a muffin tray
spoons
measuring cups
wooden spoon
spatula
pastry brush
bowls

No matter what the expectation of play - Children will get messy! Do not wear best clothes!

Mud Kitchen Learning Opportunities


Not only are your children playing with a mud kitchen they are also learning! There are so many learning opportunities when it comes to a mud kitchen. First of all is role play, this is fantastic for toddlers to recreate baking in the kitchen and it also encourages lots of vocabulary and communication. Helping with speech development by including lots of language and by asking questions.  For toddlers you can include early maths learning by asking your child to count flowers/stones. Older children can measure water, weigh mud ingredients and repeat patterns. Physical development is also occurring with a mud kitchen, your child is improving fine and gross motor skills by transferring the mud/water between bowls and by using the utensils. 


Playing with a Mud Kitchen Tuff Spot Tray


I absolutely love the fact that this is completely open ended, your child will play with this in their own way. My five year old unprompted started to decorate the mud cupcakes with dandelions and daisies from the garden. I loved the fact that even my eight year got involved with this! As with most activities in my house, it started off quite conservative and then it escalated quickly! First there was a lot of mixing going on in the bowls which soon progressed into full blown mud painting! I do always expect it to go down this route so I had some old towels to hand to help with the clean up. As it was a lovely sunny day, I hosed them down outside and then put them straight in the bath. 


This is such a lovely activity to do, my three really enjoyed it and I loved the unexpected learning opportunities that came from it.

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For more tuff spot tray ideas check out my tuff spot tray roundup post here.

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