Clean mud – Day 100 Toddler Play Challenge

This is a great quick set up activity because part of the fun is making the clean mud.

Adam sat in the Tuff Spot Tray and tore up toilet paper.

Whilst he was busy I grated the soap. It looked like cheese so best to keep away from little hands and mouths!

Once we had ripped up a whole toilet roll I scattered some of the soap shavings on top before pouring on hot water.

In the past I have tried warm water but it doesn’t melt the soap enough.

We then mixed it all together. A potato masher is great for this although I prefer to use my fingers.

I can’t imagine Adam will be up to using his fingers any time soon!

We sprinkled green glitter and mixed that in too.

Clean mud is amazing to touch and smells lovely. It is so soft and you can’t stop squashing it between your fingers. To encourage Adam to touch the clean mud I resorted to using vehicles. I tipped the clean mud out into the Tuff Spot and waited to see what Adam would do.

He laid down in the Tuff Spot and moved the blue car around.

He touched some of the clean mud and immediately had to show me – looking unimpressed.

But he kept at it.

Dad-dad showed Adam how to scoop up the clean mud on a spatula and then throw it in the air. He loved doing this.

The clean mud is also great to make sculptures with. In the summer the sculptures eventually go hard in the sun as the mixture is basically soapy paper mache. I made some clean mud snowmen.

It didn’t take Adam long before he flattened them though.

This is another activity I have used with my Reception class. Ours was on a much larger scale as we used a large sand pit instead of a Tuff Spot. Whenever a child had finished playing they wiped their hands on some toilet paper and threw the toilet paper back into sandpit to add to the clean mud.