A Muddy First: Play for Joy and Learning

What's In This Kit?
This training kit helps teachers understand the benefits of mud play as a learning experience. They will learn ways to conduct and evaluate activities involving mud and other sensory play materials. As a result of this training, Learners will be able to explain the benefits, and prepare for, conduct, and evaluate a mud day or other messy play activity. They will learn ways to involve parents in these activities.

This training kit contains the following components:

• Expected training outcomes and learning objectives
• Training tips and strategies
• Training benchmarks
• Preparation and implementation steps
• Handouts
• The article “A Muddy First” by Michael Follett, Kristian Hancock, and Diana Suskind
• Small Group Activity Cards
• Bonus Article, “Glorious Mud: The Cheapest, Friendliest Art Material in the World” by Kiko Denzer
• Three Bonus Activities
• References and Resources
• Training Certificate for Learner �" Certificate of Attendance and Participation
• Training Certificate for Trainer �" Award Certificate

Who's the Target Audience?
The target audiences for this training kit are beginning, intermediate, and advanced Learners who are working with young children ages 3-12 years.

Teacher Skill Level

beginning intermediate advanced

Children's Age Level

infants toddlers preschoolers school-agers birth to 5

Kit Timeline:
Preparation time for this kit is estimated at 1 hour. Implementation and actual training time is 2 hours, which includes 1 hour of face-to-face training and 1 hour of independent study and an applied activity project. There are 3 bonus activities, which can add as much as 2.5 hours to the training time.

Training Outcomes:

At the conclusion of this training, Learners will be able to:

• Explain the benefits of mud play and other sensory experiences.
• Name some ways to involve parents in mud play activities.
• Compile and list the steps to prepare for a mud day or other messy play activity.
• Conduct and evaluate at least 2 activities involving mud or other sensory materials and explain the learning benefits.

These training outcomes address the following:

• 1.A.01a. Teachers work in partnership with families, establishing and maintaining regular, ongoing,
  two-way communication.
• 2.G.03 Children are provided varied opportunities and materials that encourage them to use the
  5 senses to observe, explore, and experiment with scientific phenomena.
• 3.A.03 Teaching staff support children’s needs.
• 9.A.04 A variety of age- and developmentally-appropriate materials and equipment are available indoors and outdoors for children throughout the day.

Note: Downloadable PDFs are only available for download in pdf format. Directions for downloading follow immediately after purchase.