Mud Faces
Here is another muddy game that’s as simple as can be. All you need is a bit of dirt, a bit of water, a pair of hands and some creativity.
Step One
Get digging in whatever dirt/muddy puddle that you have available to you.
Dig it up with your favourite spade, stick, fingers or other digging tool.
Dig up a little or dig up a lot.
Step Two
Mix in a little water with your dirt.
Mix with hands, sticks, digging tools or whatever else your child would like to use.
Keep mixing and squeezing, adding more water and more dirt until the mud Holds together enough to plonk a blob of it into a tree trunk, a wall, a fence, a tree fork, or anywhere it’ll stick!
Grab a big blob or a small blob and pat it together until it stays where you’ve plonked it. This step can take some trial error until the blob of mud decides to stick!
Play around with your surface until it works. You might need to add more dirt, or squeeze a bit harder to get the blob to stay.
Step Three
Now it’s time to decorate! You can go on a little hunt to find tree nuts, leaves, flowers, sticks, sand, feathers or anything else that you have close by.
Make a “face” with two eyes, a nose and a mouth.
Add some hair.
Make a monster with ten eyes.
Do whatever seems fun at the time!
Step Four
Repeat steps one to three as many times as you like until you have a whole village of faces!
You might like to paint your own face with mud too! Or let your little one paint it for you.
As with most of my outdoor creative ideas, they are just a starting point. Follow your child’s whims and see where the fun can lead you. If you love making neat things, then make your own face and then show your child your creation. There are no hard-and-fast rules here, just an opportunity for some relaxed, creative fun.
When you’re all done you can leave your creations behind for others to find (unless you’ve used pieces of rubbish in your creations in which case it’s best to take your rubbish home and dispose of it correctly).
Happy creating!
