Messy play is incredibly important for development, so I like to provide August with as many messy opportunities as possible. Sunny days make it easy because we can wreak havoc outside and just hose everything off afterwards! Today just felt like a mud day

HOW: I put containers full of soil into August's play tray and added a big tub of water, some metal containers, gardening tools and plastic animals.

PLAY: First I let August explore however he wanted to. I joined in by copying whatever he was doing and made comments to add language and teach new vocabulary. Later I showed him how to make mud pies and set up a narrative where his animals were eating mud pies and getting dirty or throwing up. We also bathed the animal. These narratives are things that August would be unlikely to come up with in his own because of his age and stage but that he can still really enjoy and learn from when he's exposed to them - which is why it's so important for adults to join in.

LANGUAGE :
When you add toy people or animals to any activity, it's much easier to add language because you can pretend to talk for them and talk about what they're doing. See how I'm narrating what each animal is doing and how they're reacting? Without animals, there's also lots of language to add about the mud, the texture, narrating the steps e.g. "You're tipping the water in!".

Products:
❤️ play tray from @playitforwardnz. So good for keeping mess mostly contained!
❤️ wet suit is mum2mum.
❤️ some of the metal containers are @navybabynz
❤️this is soil - please don't use potting mix.

Who's brave enough to get muddy?!