Nature’s Pointe Cooperative Preschool

Over the last year, we focused on building a new mud kitchen. It was one of the most popular areas of the
outdoor classroom, but we were ready for an upgrade.

We are fortunate to have families with the skills, time, and dedication to design and build the mud kitchen. It also fostered a community atmosphere, as we had to plan several workdays to complete the project.

Our new mud kitchen features 2 long tables and a storage cabinet. Each table has 2 sinks, counter space, and cabinet doors that can be incorporated into play or used for storage. We also have 2 additional tables with removable mixing bowls. We use different water sources for the mud kitchen, including camp shower bags, pitchers with spouts, and buckets of water. In the winter, we have snow, slush, and ice. We also offer nature loose parts, such as flower petals, herbs from the sensory path, pinecones, mulch, sand, and of course, mud.

We love how the mud kitchen offers sensory-stimulating, messy play while allowing the children to explore, be creative, engage in cooperative play, and work on problem solving-skills. Through developmentally appropriate play, the children are gaining fine motor skills, gross motor skills, and learning math, science, and pre-literacy concepts.