Child Led Activity

Our preschoolers ran to get their carpets as circle time was about to begin.  We sang and read stories.  One story was titled, Preschoolers to the Rescue.  The story talked about many vehicles one by one getting caught in icky, sticky, ooey, gooey mud.  The preschoolers in the story ran outdoors into the rain and they freed all the vehicles from this sticky mud using rubber bands, popsicle sticks, rocks, sand, and their teamwork as preschoolers and friends.  My own preschoolers were fascinated.
This prompted our activity to follow: 

We discussed what was needed to make actual mud and the kids were right on; dirt and water.  So we took Masa (a new word for the kids to learn) and water to mix into a messy, icky, sticky, ooey, gooey mess. 

They realized that this mess was tasty too as they all sampled a bit.  They also enjoyed the feeling of squishing the sticky mess between their fingers, just like real mud.   

It was so important to let the kids just discuss their findings and explore.  Some wanted extra water and some wanted to make mud cakes.  I began to wonder if these could actually cook and I remembered in my earlier travels watching a family in El Salvador sitting near their tent, making Papoosas.  This is such a tasty Salvadorean entree.  I then ran to the kitchen, brought out an oiled cast iron skillet and let the kids add their "mud pies" on top. 

Icky Sticky Ooey Gooey Mud Pies-Mmmm

The kids ran to wash up in a water bin and then ran off to play outside to discuss and continue their excitment for icky, sticky, ooey, gooey mud.    This took them to our sandbox and water table so they could continue their efforts to mix these two resources and make more mud pies. 

Meanwhile, I cooked their mud pies and added a sprinkle of sugar to each one.  I then took them outside and you should have seen their eyes light up with such excitement to taste their inventions.  All but one enjoyed their treats and this made for such a successful, child led activity.  I scrapped the rest of my day's activity and decided that this couldn't have turned out better if I had it all planned out myself .