Our mud kitchen is a hive of activity and the children benefit in so many ways. It is great to see the children talking with each other and sharing their experiences and ideas; Darcy and Veronika look up from stirring their mud cake “We’re making a cake”, Veronika says. Darcy then continues, “We need more flour, get more flour”. They discover that adding more ‘flour’ makes the stirring more difficult. Veronika turns to Darcy, “It’s too tricky now”, “It’s sticky... too hard”, Darcy responds to the observation, then goes off to get more water. It’s not just children playing with the mud but they are actively sharing their ideas, learning new vocabulary, extending ideas and making connections with real world experiences. As all the children play in the mud kitchen they are not only enhancing their communication and language skills, but are problem solving and becoming little scientists and mathematicians as they collectively make their cakes, coffee and potions by pouring, mixing and observing the changes to their ingredients, all in the name of fun.