For a reading lesson, have the children read with you the story "How to Make a Mud Pie" by Rozanne Lanczak Williams. The book is easy to read and follows children as they make mud and talk about what mud is. After the story, invite the children outside where you will provide them with pie tins to make their own mud pie. Mix together new potting soil and water to make clean mud. You can provide the students with leaves, rocks and sticks to use to decorate their pies. You can even take photos of the pies when the kids finish. Once the pies have dried out in the sun, display them in class.
Help students develop creativity with a recipe book project. In this project, you give the class a lesson on mud, the earth and things that can be done with mud. Tell the class that the best thing ever to do with mud is making mud pies, but you have no recipes. You can give the students sheets of brown paper to write out their best mud pie recipes. Walk around and help the students develop their ideas. To finish, you can bind the pages into a book and include the room number and "Mud Pie Cookbook" on the cover.
Talk to your class about how mud and dirt have been used throughout history, especially to make homes. To start the project, cover a work area with painting tarps and set up a "mud zone." The class can then build homes and buildings out of mud. If the mess is too much, this project can be done with a mud-colored clay. As the class works, show pictures of mud homes and help students with their creations. And don't forget to take photos; their parents will definitely want to see what they come up with.
The mud snack is a treat to end the day with--and thankfully, it's simple to make and a joy to eat. All you have to do is crush chocolate cookies in a bag then mix them with chocolate pudding. Pour the mix into small plastic cups for the students and insert a gummy worm for surprise, top it off with green sugar and pass out to the students to enjoy. As the kids eat, talk about the animals and bugs that live in the mud.