International Mud Day Celebration Inspires Cross Cultural Unity and Nature Exploration

On June 29th, 2016 at 9:30 am, Elmhurst Academy joined other children and early childhood professionals around the world in International Mud Day to celebrate nature, outdoors, and mess by getting really muddy. In their eagerly-awaited event, that emphasizes universality and cross-cultural exploration into mud, students will explore many mud-themed centers to integrate specific learning areas and engage all their senses.

In 2009, International Mud Day was created to connect a group of children in Nepal to one in New Zealand. Two groups from different countries, cultures, and socioeconomic backgrounds found that they were connected by something universal, natural, and fun—mud. Since then, Mud Day has transformed into an intercultural, learning-oriented event where students can celebrate something much bigger than playing in their own patch of mud by sharing experiences with other students around the world.

Elmhurst Academy celebrates this annual event as an exciting component of its nature-explore certification and accreditation through the Arbor Day Foundation. Mud Day emphasizes the importance of natural learning and a critical inter-cultural piece, and it is the students’ favorite part of their summer program, said Mrs. Kaitlyn Berger, Nature Curriculum Specialist. It is a complete sensory experience for young learners, exploring its thick texture, its earthy smell, and its squishy sound, and is where they can also develop a sense of being connected with themselves, others, and with the natural world.

During the event, students will partake in mud stations to explore the natural element and its vivid sensations. Some of these stations include mud kitchens to focus on smells and additional plants and herbs, mud painting to stretch creativity and imagination, mud sensory tables and nature stations to engage all senses, and the students favorite, the giant mud pit to have some fun and get a little messy. Inviting such messiness into their learning will increase the complexity and opportunities for children at Elmhurst Academy to solve problems and figure out how the world works for themselves.

“The most rewarding piece is seeing students with unstructured play and natural exploration that, as a kid, adds to their learning in a world-sense and not necessarily in a structured academic sense,” said Mrs. Kaitlyn Berger. “It is a really fun, messy, and ‘all-in’ day where students can have this freeing opportunity to be who they are called to be.”