Centers Celebrate International Mud Day

June 29, 2017 – Students at Bright Horizons centers across the country celebrated International Mud Day on Thursday, June 29, 2017. From the Northeast to the West Coast, students enjoyed the day by connecting with nature and the earth beneath their feet, getting their hands messy and playing in the mud.

Educators at Bright Horizons understand that a child’s connection to nature can encourage motor skill development. Since the natural world can be a learning laboratory that inspires curiosity, International Mud Day provides the opportunity for students to be innate scientists. Children can connect with nature by experiencing the sights, scents, sounds, and textures of the outdoors.

Centers across the nation celebrated International Mud Day through the joy of outdoor play, with creative activities and unique outdoor classrooms. At The Albright Learning Center in Reading, Pennsylvania, as well as the Citigroup Family Center in Jacksonville, Florida, students and staff created mud kitchens. The children put on their aprons and chef hats and made mud pies, having fun through hands-on learning. 

At the Marin Day School Hillside Campus in Mill Valley, California, and at the Children’s Place at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, students spent the day learning through outdoor discovery and creativity. The children enjoyed mud snacks and designed art projects. In Andover, the students were invited to an outdoor classroom for the day, where they could play in the mud pool, the mud slide, or the mud kitchen, while those who opted to keep their hands  clean, read books from the mud library.

As Carol Landry, Center Director at The Children’s Plate at Phillips Academy, told the Andover Townsman, "International Mud Day is celebrated on June 29 each year to help connect kids back to nature. I remember, when we were little, making mud pies in my grandfather's garden and playing in mud holes. We as a society have gotten away from that. This is allowing kids to reconnect with nature." 

Learn more about the visits in The Andover Towsnman and in Reading Eagle.