Outdoor Learning – Mud Kitchen Recipe Writing
By MARISSA DESPINS Updated April 10, 2024
Welcome back to the second installment in my Outdoor Learning series! In these posts, we will be exploring Outdoor Learning opportunities, and ways to uncover powerful learning experiences in the great outdoors! Today I share a fun mud kitchen recipe writing activity.
For no-prep resources to help you extend your outdoor learning time, check out all of the outdoor learning resources available in my TPT shop by clicking on the image or button below!
Mud Kitchen Recipe Writing
Those of you familiar with the blog know that I am currently teaching a grade 2/3 place based program. Basically, that means that our class spends a lot of time exploring the outdoors, and connecting our learning to the local environment. We are always excited when the sun decides to make an appearance (especially in early March, in rainy BC!), because it means we have the opportunity to grab our supplies and take our learning outdoors.
Today was a gorgeous day, making it the perfect opportunity to muck around in the Mud Kitchen. Our school installed a Mud Kitchen in our playground area last spring, and it is a favourite play spot for both our primary and intermediate kiddos – you can often find the older kids happily mixing and baking right along side our littler learners. I talked all about our Mud Kitchen, and the benefits of getting outside and making mud pies with your students, in a previous post.
Mud Kitchen Recipe Cards – Direction Following Practice
Today I wanted to incorporate some literacy into our play, so we spent some time talking about different recipes we could create outside. I started by giving them a stack of some Mud Kitchen Recipe Cards that I had previously laminated, and they set to work trying to replicate them. This was a great way to practice following directions!
Later, we took our learning back to the classroom, and discussed some of the things we noticed when we were outside. What did the recipes have in common? Did they require specific cooking utensils? What types of ingredients? We came up with a list of some common elements and wrote them on an anchor chart.
Looking for more information on anchor charts, check out our complete guide!
Writing The Mud Kitchen Recipe
After our brainstorm, I passed out some different recipe writing templates. Even my most reluctant writers were super excited to get their ideas down on paper! Don’t you just love it when the kids are so engaged that they don’t even realize they are writing? This kind of enthusiasm makes my teacher heart sing. This was a wonderful opportunity to practice our “How To” Writing skills!
After we were done, we put together all of our recipes in a class book. We plan to laminate our book, and sneak it outside as a “random act of kindness” for the other students to play with.
For more fun ways to spread kindness, check out our 30 kindness ideas!
For additional writing activities to inspire your learners, check out our posts on descriptive writing and the RACE writing strategy!
For more fun outdoor learning opportunities, check out our posts on outdoor sit spots, Earth Day math, and Place-Based Learning!
Does your school have a Mud Kitchen? Do you have any fun lessons or ideas to share? Let me know in the comment section!
Interested in Writing Mud Kitchen Recipes with your Students?
You can download all of the Mud Kitchen resources I mentioned in this blog post by clicking on the image below. This package contains full color print and go recipe cards (including the one for “Pebble Cake” I posted above) for your students to follow, as well as graphic organizers and templates for recipe writing (including the one we used), grocery list making, and menu creating. I hope you enjoy them as much as we did!
Looking for More Information about Outdoor Learning?
Check out some of my previous posts on Outdoor Learning by clicking on the links below
What is a Mud Kitchen? Learning Through Play
Wednesday Wander #1 – Nature Mandalas
Exploring the Mud Kitchen – Ways to Extend Learning
Looking for More Outdoor Learning Resources?
Check out the Outdoor Learning section of my Teachers Pay Teachers store! I have lots of fun ideas to take learning into the great outdoors!
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