Jun 24

Jun 24 Celebratory Mud Cake

There is a always a lot of “cooking” activity at First Steps in Nature. We collect seed pods, leaves, dirt, water and sticks. We mix and blend and pour and whip. Aside from the standard stews, soups and potions, a regular favourite is a muddy birthday cake!

The stainless steel cake-serving platter is a favourite piece of equipment

The “how to” of making a muddy cake

The concept is simple – mix some mud, decorate with whatever can be found near where you are playing, put on something that resembles a serving platter and share!

A well-loved piece of equipment in our Nature Play kit is a stainless steel serving platter. It started it’s life being used for edible cakes, but has since become a firm favourite for muddy cakes. If you don’t have a serving tray, use a bench, a plate, the ground or a large piece of bark.

Decoration ideas

red flowers as the candle flames
grass cuttings as “sprinkles” on top.
colourful leaves
seed pods, sticks, or anything found in your garden (that is OK for your child to pick and play with)

Opportunity for language development and sensory experiences

For those children who are not yet using many words, there are opportunities to simply squeeze, pat, poke and smoosh. You as the adult can give them some language if it feels appropriate to do so, or you can sit back and allow your child to enjoy the sensory experience without a verbal layer. Even when they are already verbal they may just enjoy getting swept up in their play without the need for words or language.
For those who are interested in using words there are lots of opportunities. If single words are fun for your child - “mud”, “pour”, “pat”, “teapot”, “leaf” etc.
For those interested in talking through their experiences or who want to put sentences together and discuss ideas there are lots of things to talk about - temperature, thickness or colour of the mud, colour of the leaves, how heavy or wobbly the tray is. Whatever inspires you or your child in the moment will be where the creative fun lies.
For those children who are at the “why” stage, there will be plenty of questions to answer about the cake-making experience.

Red flowers became “flames” for the stick “candles”

Creative play opportunities

There are children who want to help out with the creation, mixing up mud or pouring on handfuls of dirt. There are those who want to collect leaves or sticks or seed pods and place them on top of the “cake”. And there are children who want to knock the tray over and stomp on the muddy creation! My creativity is often used to find a safe space to channel these various forms of creative expression.

By holding space for the creators during the creation stage, and then giving space to the destructors when the time is right, the children can be met wherever they are. There is no “right” or adult-defined way of playing with this idea. But there are always boundaries to behaviours that don’t harm others whilst we are all playing together.

It is important for those who want to create to have space to do so without fear of having their creations just destroyed on a whim by another child. It is also important to have experience of packing a creation away and moving on to something else.

Our “cakes” don’t always end up being smooshed, sometimes they are cut up and shared around. (And have probably been actually tasted by some of the children!)

Once the cake is done it is sometimes tipped over and stomped on!

More than simply an outdoor activity

As always in our little Nature play group, the natural materials/activity ideas are just a small part of the joy and experience.

There is space to learn about different people having different feelings, different ideas and different needs. We learn together about collaborating, about having our own needs met whilst also building an awareness of others. We learn about boundaries in creative expression.

The younger children are often captivated by the older ones and stare intently at the goings on. When there is a space, the younger ones will have a go at what the older kids just did.

The adults in the group are sharing experiences too, and creating space where their children can be nurtured and have space to explore and be playful. Sometimes this is by interacting with their children and sharing the play. Other times it is by sitting back and observing.

All these layers of learning and connection whilst doing simple things like making muddy birthday cakes.