Summer Messy Play Activities for Preschoolers

Fun In The Sun - 6 Tips For Creating A Mud Kitchen For Your Kids

Kids love mud! And as dirty as they may get, it’s time to advocate messy play so they can learn new skills the fun way. The fastest and easiest way to encourage your kids to get outdoors is to build them a mud kitchen.They'll be tripping over each other to get outside

Building your own mud kitchen is a creative, cost-effective way of enabling messy play for your kids while saving money on an expensive play kitchen. 

You can build your mud kitchen in your own way, and in the end, your kids will have the perfect environment in which to get their hands dirty anytime.

This post contains Amazon affiliate links for your convenience.

Photo: Jelleke Vanooteghem/Unsplash

Six tips to create your own mud kitchen

1. Use What You’ve Got

Poke around your garage and see what you can recycle to save money on your mud kitchen. You can use wood, recycled pallets, and old timber for the construction. Old cookware and bakeware, utensils, and decorations can also be used to finish out the kitchen,

Remember, the idea is to ignite your child’s imagination, so your DIY mud kitchen doesn’t need to resemble a brand-new toy kitchen set. 

2. Stove Tops Add to The Fun

While it’s great to leave some things up to the imagination, it’s a good idea to make your play kitchen resemble a real kitchen by creating a stove top. You can paint the burners on a piece of timber or wood, and you can even add broken or thrifted appliances to your outdoor kitchen to enhance its appearance. You can also use good, old cardboard to create a play stove.

3. Bake Mud Cakes

The fun part of having a mud kitchen is that your kids get to play with mud and get as dirty as they want. All you need to make mud cakes is some sand or soil and water. You can use old cookware and bake ware to contain them and shape them like cakes and cupcakes.

Parents can get involved by showing kids how to create funky-shaped cookies with cookie cutters and molds or add colored pasta to the mud for added texture. This kind of sensory play is an important part of childhood development, but above all, it’s a whole lot of fun.

Pistachio Pudding Play Dough

4. Set the Table

A mud kitchen is a fun way to teach your child table manners. Guide your preschoolers through setting a table and laying out the dishes. Show them the way to arrange cutlery and allow your children to bring some garden leaves to create napkins for a rustic table setting.

5. Add a Sink

Since you’ve introduced messy play to your preschoolers with colored pasta and mud cakes, it’s a good idea to take care of the cleanup. The most logical way to do this is to add a sink to your mud kitchen! To create your sink, use a silver or grey bucket and fill it with water or a big flower put with the bottom plugged works nicely too.

Add a hose in the bucket so that there’s an accessible faucet. This is a great way to teach children how to clean up after themselves. Add some dish washing liquid and a sponge so you can wash all the cookware the kids used before bringing it back into the house!

How to Make your own Dish Washing Soap

6. Dress For The Occasion

Every chef needs a chef’s hat and apron, so make sure to get these for your child. They will love it! Plus, the apron will offer some protection from mud splatter while playing. Rubber boots are a good idea too. Preschool age kids and toddlers love to wear galoshes!

How to Make your own Chef Hat

 

Have fun with your kiddos and their mud kitchen. You may want to wear some rubber boots yourself! Encourage your children to enjoy free and imaginative play, and you can bet they’ll learn tons of kitchen tricks in the process. Pretend play is the best way to learn!

Recommended Reading:

Pretend Play and Play Date Ideas from Adventures of Kids Creative Chaos

Fun Books about Galoshes from Amazon

Kids Games that get You Moving: How to Play Disc Golf

Disc Golf is a Game that gets Kids Moving

Frisbee Golf or Flying Disc Golf isn't very complicated, but the professionals take it very seriously. Since we blog about kids' activities, we've adapted this fun, family game into an easy to play (and explain) game to get children moving. If you're lucky, you have a disc golf course at your local park, but you probably don't even realize it. Enjoy!

This post contains  Amazon and other affiliate links for your convenience.

Playground Games for Kids

Outdoor Games for Playground

Everyone has warm memories from the playground. That’s where we played tag, made new friends and shared our secrets. Now it's our responsibility to encourage our kids to play more outside, especially in today’s technology-driven times. These ideas for outdoor playground games for kids are sure to get kids moving!

This post contains affiliate links. If you click and make a purchase, I get a commission.

A lot of kids are glued to their phones and laptops, and it has a negative impact on their development. Not getting enough physical activity leads to obesity. Let’s not forget that kids addicted to the Internet are more likely to struggle with socializing.

Take your child to the playground to play this weekend. You will see, it's more than just a fun place. First of all, your child will be able to burn off energy. Swinging and climbing will do its work, and your angel will get tired and fall asleep faster. Physical exercise can also help to cope with stress, to develop strong bones, and to do better at school.

Secondly, kids can enhance their social skills and make new friends. So, don’t be afraid to take your kid to a new playground. Once your child starts playing with others, they feel excited and more confident. Teach your kids different outdoor playground games, so they will never get bored!

Playing outdoor playground games can encourage kids to cooperate and boost their creativity. So, play with your children and have fun!

Recommended:

Outdoor Games from Amazon

Outdoor Game for a Group

Playground Jokes

Sensory Saturday: Kid's Outdoor Games for PE or Summer Camp

Outdoor Games for Homeschool PE or Summer Camp

Monsters, Wizards, and Elves Summer Outdoor Game for Kids.

Monsters

Wizards

This is a fun game we learned at VBS a few years ago and it is loads of fun to play! It’s like a live action game of ‘Paper, Rock, Scissors’. These games are great for Summer Camp or Family Reunions.

What you Need: 
A Large Yard or Field, 3 Ropes (or Other Items) to be used as Place Markers

How to Play Game: 

Character Descriptions and Actions:

Monsters: Beat Elves. Action: Show that you are a monster by raising your arms high over your head and ‘roaring’ at the opposing team.

Wizards: Beat Monsters. Action: Show that you are wizard by pretending to shoot magic from your finger tips at the opposing team, while making a loud ‘zapping’ sound.

Elves: Beat Wizards. Action: Show that you are an elf by sticking out your tongue and wiggling your fingers by your ears (as if mocking the other team) and make a silly sound at your opponents.

Split the players into two even teams and designate one additional person as the referee. Choose a place to play and mark a center line and a boundary line at the end of each side. 

(Creating a long playing area – from left to right it will be (far left) boundary line, center line, (far right) boundary line.) 

Each team huddles together at their own boundary line and decides which character they will be (as a team) at the beginning of each round. 

(Character descriptions and actions listed above.) Once the teams have decided, the ref calls them to the center line and calls out “1, 2, 3, Go!”. 

Then the teams will do the action for the character they chose. If their character beats the opposing teams character, they will chase them back to their boundary line, tagging as many players as they can and bringing those players to their team. 

Play continues until one team captures all of the players from the other team.



Recommended Reading:

175 Best Camp Games*

PE Games for Kids








ADS DISCLOSURE: We've partnered with some wonderful advertisers who may sponsor blog posts or send us samples to test. Some companies pay us to review their products.
*We also use affiliate links, if you make a purchase we get a tiny commission. Kids Creative Chaos participates in the Amazon LLC Associates Program*, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a mean for blogs to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon properties, including, but not limited to, amazon.com, endless.com, myhabit.com, smallparts.com, or amazonwireless.com. We also offer Tapinfluence, Google Adsense, SoFab, and Izea ads here. Thanks so much for helping us keep the lights on! :)

DIY Design with Collage Building: Outdoor Gardening Space and Patio Room Ideas

Outdoor Gardening Space and Patio Room DIY Design Ideas

Do you dream of designing your own space? DIY Design ideas are easy to come up with when you use an online collage builder program. The collage template below is a lot of fun. Enjoy!

This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

When you go shopping for new furniture for a room design are you one of the lucky ones who can visualize exactly how the room will go together? Can you tell if colors and patterns coordinate without holding fabric swatches or paint samples next to each other?  When designing an outdoor living space, the same factors come into play. 

You will love Picmonkey.com. Just upload your images to the collage templates or use their sample photos to create your own collage builder. I wanted to design an inviting, fun outdoor space that coordinated with my patio room. I chose Adirondack seating and natural finishes to give the space an Americana style. For great tips on landscape and outdoor design projects visit outdoors.org.

With a landscape collage builder, you can flip and rotate items for the exact configuration of your desires. The collage above mixes and matches indoor and outdoor items perfect for the avid gardener or outdoor entertainer. When you're ready to get serious, you can sketch your design on graph paper. Did you know you can even buy landscape drawing templates like the pros use?

Just imagine the playhouse's window box filled with cascading flowers with your little one peeking out the window, the bookshelf covered in cute planters full of herbs and edible flowers, and you lounging on the oversize chaise after a beautiful summer morning spent gardening. Now, if you're space is overrun with trees, you may need to call a tree service so that you can start designing with a clear palette. In California, Tree and garden experts Roseville can help prep your backyard space.

Be sure to store unsightly gardening equipment in stackable baskets or wooden crates. No need to hide your watering source or red wheelbarrow. They give the space a sense of purpose and a punch of color. Above, the green frog on the pillow and wall hanging help define the space as an outdoor refuge. Are your creative juices flowing?

Ready to design your own space? Check out these outdoor gardening design templates and start experimenting today. 


Recommended:

Universal Design Tips for Nursery

Ideas for Great Kids' Rooms

Cute Monster Paperbag Puppets: Video, Monster Trouble: First in our KCC Kid's Creative Play Series for Kids

Make your own paper bag monster puppets for Halloween

In honor of my favorite holiday (Halloween) we explore Monsters. Special thanks to Alex Toys for providing the crafts and toys in this post. These Paper Bag Monster Puppets came in a kit but you could make your own with construction paper shapes and lunch or colorful party bags. Play a Monster Game too.

 Paper Bag Monster Puppets are fun for a 
Preschool or Toddler Birthday Party.

More Paperbag Puppets for Teaching (Presidents)

Creative Play allows children to forget about stress and school work and let their imaginations run wild. 

I'm a huge fan! The Play Connection, Inc. offers many opportunities through our Sensory Messy Classes, Costumes/Puppets and Kiddie Play Productions.

First, we made Paper Bag Monster Puppets. The kits includes 5 colorful paper bags but with the leftover supplies you can make even more with white or brown paper lunch sacks.

Paperbag Monster Puppets.

After monster making, we went on a CREATIVE PLAY adventure and filmed it for you! The monster in the video is wearing the Face Paint Kit by Alex Toys and his weapons of choice are the Connect a Giant Monster discs. 

We hope you'll join us over the next few weeks as I find my inner videographer and the kiddos explore their improvisational skills in our first video production, The KCC Kids Creative Play Series Videos. 

The KCC Detective Agency presents MONSTER TROUBLE.



Find the Undercover Spy Gear here. After tracking monsters, you can get some much needed target practice when you clean up in the bath with this Screaming Monster Tub Target.

Monster Bath Tub Toys.

Each month, we'll go on a fun adventure and share it with you. Stay tuned next month for our tribute to Thanksgiving and the Wampanoag Indians.

We'd love to hear from you! Do you have ideas for future KCC adventures? Do you want to join in the fun? Leave a comment below or subscribe to our posts.

Recommended Reading:

Monster Toilet Paper Roll Cardboard Tubes

Birthday Party Game Kids Love

Monster Birthday Book by Boynton

France Country Study with Worksheets

French Lessons and Worksheets for Homeschool or Classroom

If you homeschool like we do, you're probably teaching several grade levels at once. For this France Country Study Lesson, we've found worksheets and activities that work for toddlers to tweens to teens. Scroll down for Videos on the French Revolution, French Word Search Printables, Famous Artists, Art Projects, and Games they play in France. School teachers, you'll find fun classroom activities and worksheets that work in a classroom setting too. Enjoy!

This post contains Amazon and other affiliate links for your convenience.

France Country Study with Worksheets.

Quick Facts about the Country of France.

Learn to speak French for Free with the Duo Lingo App or these French Language lessons.

This French Flag bookmark craft project from, Start at 5, works for preschoolers to high school.

For Elementary and Middle School, Make a Passport like this one from De Su Mama.

Printable Passport Activity from De Su Mama.

Make an Eiffel Tower with bits of colored straws like this one from Cutting Tiny Bites. While this craft activity is fun for elementary, it also aides preschoolers in fine motor skills.

Eiffel Tower Kids' Activity.

French History Lesson

The French Revolution











The French Revolution on BrainPop. (Must have password.)

Online Educational Game: French Revolution Time Zone X Game

French Revolution Worksheet for Middle School and High School.

Choose a Famous French Scientist and write a Biography.

Games from France

Hopscotch: This game is played outdoors on a flat, paved surface, but you can paint an old sheet or use cardboard squares to play indoors. You can also purchase a hopscotch board for indoor or outdoor play. Each player needs a small item to toss onto the hopscotch squares. Rocks or quarters work well. Not sure how to play? Get the rules to hopscotch.


Petanque: How to Play Petanque





La Semaine or "The Week"  is  played with 1 or more children with chalk and a pebble (pennies work too). Use the chalk to  draw seven squares in a row. Label each square with a day of the week.

Now, a player throws their pebble into the Monday box. If they miss, it is the next player's turn. If they hit it, they must jump on one foot to get to the stone, pick it up while still standing on one foot, and then jump back to the start.

Players repeat for each day of the week (seven times). Repeat the task every time a mistake is made. For example, they trip or hop on two feet. Game is won when one player covers all squares and makes it safely back start.

French Cricket You will need a Cricket bat or tennis racket and ball. Players stand in a circle. The first player stands with their feet together, defending the 'stumps,' which in French Cricket are the batman's legs below the knees. Now, the players in the circle take turns to bowl at the 'stumps' and the batsman must hit the ball away from them. The bowler gets clever to distract the batsman.


If the batman's legs are hit, he's out. He's also out if he moves his feet at any time from the original position. If the bowler, or any of the fielders around the circle, catch the ball before it hits the ground, the batsman is also out. Everyone takes a turn until the batsman is out. The bowler who 'stumps' the batsman takes his place.  

Worksheets

Make your own French Word Search

Muguet du 1er Mai Elementary Coloring Worksheet (First of May)

Printable Language Arts French Quotes Project for Middle School and High School



Famous French Artists










Paint like Matisse with this Still Life Art Lesson for Kids.

After you've learned all about France, get a taste of their culture and celebrate by making French Recipes. Enjoy these French cooking lessons and recipes for kids.



Recommended:

French Word Search Books

French Games for the Classroom

Build a Lego Eiffel Tower

Books about France

Country Study Afghanistan

Country Study China

French Cook books for Kids

Fun PE Games for Kids: PE Activities Gym Exercise

 PE Games for Elementary Homeschoolers

Getting PE time in as a homeschooler is difficult. Sometimes, you have to get creative. Kids love to play tag! These physical education games for elementary focus on old favorites, but each one has a new twist. Learn the country of origin of many pe activities for kids. Kids will love to play these fun PE games indoors or outdoors. Enjoy!

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.*

Fun PE Games for Kids: PE Activities Gym Exercise.

Sensory Play: Plan your Curriculum and Lesson Plan

Sensory Play Lesson Plans Link Up

Do you have Sensory Play Activities on your blog? Are you looking for Sensory Play Activity Lesson Plans or Curriculum to do with your toddler, preschool class, or day care program? These sensory activities make it easy to plan your curriculum and prep those lesson plans. Check back often for our Sensory Play Linky Parties. Enjoy!

Are you looking for sensory activities to do with a baby, toddler, preschooler, elementary age, or teen child? We've got you covered with a linky party. If you have a blog or website, please link up your posts in the comments. 

Older children with sensory processing disorders, such as Autism benefit in the same way younger children do. Children can explore their senses with these sensory activities and become accustomed to the sensation of cold paint on their fingers, the sound of crackling paper, the smell of scented dough or spice paints, the taste of edible crafts, and the visual impact of it all. 

 

Recommended Reading:

Art Develops Critical Thinking

Learning and Playing Outdoors: How to Plan and Create an Inspiring Outdoor Environment (Practitioners' Guides)

Transdisciplinary Play-Based Assessment, Second Edition (TPBA2)

Six Fun Things to do with Fla-Vor-Ice Pops: Recipes for a Cool Kids' Birthday Party

Fun Things to do with Frozen Pops and Shaved Ice for Kid's Party

Remember when you were a kid, and your mom sent you outside with a Fla-Vor-Ice Pop?  To cool down in the hot summer, we'd eat our pops and then run through the sprinkler. The best thing about Fla-Vor-Ice is they are "mom approved".  Did you know they are gluten free, low in calories, and sugar?  Each standard pop has just 5 grams of sugar.  Like Fla-Vor-Ice on Facebook for more information and tons of fun ideas. 

This post brought to you by Jel Sert.  All opinions are 100% mine.

Kids like Fla-Vor-Ice Pops, because they are a fun and refreshing treat with great tasting flavors.  They come in original fruit flavors, Tropical flavors, and even a sugar-free variety. There is a Fla-Vor-Ice Pop for everyone.  During summer camp, we always have a box of freezer pops in the ice chest.  Since  ice-pops are portable fun for everyone, you never know when one might come in handy for one of these fun things to do with Fla-Vor-Ice Pops.



1.  Make a homemade, rainbow slushy for your next summer party. 

Summer Party Recipe Ice Pop  Rainbow Slushy.

2.  Keep frozen Fla-Vor-Ice pops in an ice chest during outdoor play dates or summer vacations, and use them as a quickie first-aid ice-pack for head bumps and boo-boos. They also help with hydration.

3.  For a fun, outdoor game use ice-pops and party cups.  Line the children up, so each one stands two feet in front of a party cup, cut-off the end of their ice-pop, and count to three.  On three, everyone tries to squeeze their frozen ice into the cup without missing.  The winner is the one who flings the most frozen Fla-Vor-Ice into their cup.    

4.  Squeeze your frozen Fla-Vor-Ice into plastic Easter Eggs and then refreeze them to make a fun Easter Egg shape ice-pop treat like these from Play Eat Grow blog.

Picture from Play Eat Grow blog.  Hop over for more great ideas.

5.  Use Fla-Vor-Ice freezer pops in a homeschool science lesson about the changing states of matter.  Time the ice-pop to see how fast it freezes.  Compare it's freezing time with that of other liquids like milk, water, or yogurt.  Let it melt in a bowl on the counter, leave it out, and then track how many days it takes to evaporate.  Does it completely evaporate?

6. Before your freeze your pops, pour the liquid into fun ice cube molds, and use them to flavor your favorite clear soda.  Yum!

It's your turn, what will you do with your Fla-Vor-Ice pop? Hop over and share your ideas on Fla-Vor-Ice on Facebook! 

Recommended Reading:

55 Recipes for Ice Pops and Shave Ice
     

Home School How to play games and get your Kids Moving (Activity games for Kids)

You played these games in PE class, now teach your kids how to play games in Home School. 

Here are rules for 6 activity games for kids that don't take up too much space. Preschoolers love them, so do older elementary students. For a real hoot, play them at a Teen Birthday Party! We've added a little twist to some of these kid's activities so don't let the names send you away. Enjoy!

Kids PE Activities: Simon says, "Bark like a dog!" 
Change an old game up by digging in a costume trunk.

Musical Chairs
To play you will need chairs (or carpet squares); one fewer than the total number of players, music you can stop and go easily (for a twist designate someone to sing). Start with the chairs in a circle. When the music starts, the players will walk in a circle around the chairs. After a few seconds, the person who is controlling the music shuts it off, and all of the players scramble to sit. The player left standing is out of the game. The remaining players stand up again, one more chair is removed, and the music starts again. Repeat until there is one player left in the game. If you have a large number of children, as they get out move them to an inner circle, and let them play inside around a single chair to heighten the action moving in the opposite direction of the outer circle.


Duck Duck Goose
Who doesn't love a game of duck, duck, goose? We change it up for the seasons and play Ghost Ghost Goblin or Bunny Bunny Chick (Must hop around the circle) Have the participants sit down in a circle facing each other. One person is "it" and walks around the outside of the circle gently tapping each player on the head and saying either “duck" or “goose." When a person is tapped on the head and called “goose,” they  stand up and chases the person who is “it” around the outside of the circle, trying to tag “it” before the player can sit down in the spot where the "goose" was sitting. If the "goose" is able to tag "it," then the "goose" can return back to his seat.  "It" repeats the same procedure again. If "it" is sits before being tagged by the "goose," then the "goose" becomes "it" and the game starts again. 

Balloon Volleyball
Blow up one balloon, and locate a divider to serve as a net. A doorway, some kitchen chairs, a jump rope on the floor, or a fence make great 'do not cross lines'. Players hit the balloon back and forth across the “net” until someone misses. When one misses the balloon, the other scores one point. The first team to reach 10 points wins.

Simon Says
Mark a line on the ground (jump ropes work great or sidewalk chalk) and another line about 10' in front of the first. "Simon" stands on one line; and the players line up on the other line. "Simon" calls out directions to the players telling them actions or movements to make to move forward. For example, if "Simon" calls out "Simon says bark like a dog," then all of the players who bark like a dog get to move forward one step. If "Simon" does not start with "Simon says," then the players should not move. If a player does move, he has to return to the starting line and begin again. The first player to cross over the line where "Simon" is standing is the winner. For a fun twist, have a costume trunk nearby so the players can get in character. For example, for hop like a bunny everyone must grab bunny ears.

Red Light, Green Light 
Mark a line on the ground and another line 15-20' in front of the first. The person who is the "traffic light" stands on one line, and the players line up on the other line. The "traffic light" faces the players when it is a red light. When the "traffic light" turns his back to the players it is a green light, and the players can move towards the finish line. As soon as the "traffic light" turns back to face the players the light is red, and all of the players must freeze. During this time, no players are allowed to move. If a player does move on a red light; he has to go back to the starting line and begin again. The first player to cross over the line where the "traffic light" is standing is the winner. For a twist, add a yellow light where players must move slowly (they could even be required to crawl) or a blue light where players must walk backward. We always just shout out the light color.

Cherry Pickers
This stretching exercise requires the players to stand with feet shoulder-width apart and arms at sides. Then, the player will bend forward at the waist, reaching down and touching fingertips to the ground in front of his feet. He will then move his fingertips back so they are between his legs, and then back farther so they are through his legs. This movement should resemble picking cherries. The players stands back up, claps hands, and repeats the movements again. Pair two children back to back, and have them try to touch each other's fingertips.

Recommended Reading:

Great Big Book of Children's Games: Over 450 Indoor & Outdoor Games for Kids, Ages 3-14*

Games for Parties

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ADS DISCLOSURE: We've partnered with some wonderful advertisers who may sponsor blog posts or send us samples to test. Some companies pay us to review their products.

*We also use affiliate links, if you make a purchase we get a tiny commission. Kids Creative Chaos participates in the Amazon LLC Associates Program*, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a mean for blogs to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon properties, including, but not limited to, amazon.com, endless.com, myhabit.com, smallparts.com, or amazonwireless.com. We also offer Tapinfluence, Google Adsense, SoFab, and Izea ads here. Thanks so much for helping us keep the lights on! :)