Monday, July 9, 2012

Making Colorful Clean Mud

Have you ever played with Clean Mud? I've always wanted to make Clean Mud (can't believe I didn't do this until now!) and finally did with the neighborhood kids and my daughter. They all loved it.  It was such a fun process and great sensory experience.  It also contains simple materials I think you'll have right at home: Ivory Soap + Toilet Paper + Water.  I got the recipe here at earthkids.com.  Keep reading to find out the details of this super cool sensory play experience.



To create Clean Mud you'll need:
3 Bars of Ivory Soap 
1 to 2 rolls of toilet paper
Hot water (not  scalding)
Liquid Watercolors or Food Colors
large bowl or container



To make the Clean Mud, first you grate the Ivory Soap. They all wanted to help with this step. Then you can start tearing up the toilet paper.




We were kind of grating and putting the toilet paper in at the same time to keep everyone busy.  After adding the toilet paper and grated Ivory soap, we added the water little by little.  The instructions said it should feel like Whipped Topping. I thought it was much squishier and thicker than that.



 Next, start combining it all together.  Here is my daughter and her friend squishing it all together. They just loved this part.



They kept squishing it back and forth.  Lot of smiles and giggling!



Back and forth. So fun!



The cool thing about Clean Mud is that it is very moldable too.  Here is a "Clean Mud Mountain"!



Also, it is quite fun to poke with fingertips.  We didn't even add any tools or containers....they had so much fun just playing without other materials

 


They all suggested mixing color into it and I thought that was brilliant idea! I put liquid watercolor (you could use food color)  and Clean Mud in individual plastic bags so they could all mix their own color. This reminded me of our Paint Mixing In Bags.  Since the Clean Mud was in bags they could take it home to show their parents.....yay!



With the rest of the Clean Mud we added a bunch of colors.



This is my Heart Creation that I made. It kind of gave a rainbow effect! I liked molding the Mud into things because I always want to make everything into a sculpture.  Either way it was a successful sensory play experience and I sure hope you give it a try. Let me know if you try it.



More Clean Mud Inspiration:

Sparkle Soap Mud from The Imagination Tree

Clean Mud via the Microwave from Child Central Station

Clean Mud Experience for Young Children from
Let The Children Play

Clean Mud Sculptures from Craftberry Bush

Clean Mud is a fun (and messy) art project from
The Artful Parent

13 comments:

  1. I LOVE that you added color to your clean mud!! Everything is better with color after all :) We have been wanting to make clean mud ourselves, and now, even more so :)

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    1. Thanks Crystal I agree! I always try to add color whenever possible. I'm sure your take on Clean Mud will be simply amazing!

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  2. Beautiful Melissa, as always! Love that you added a scuplting element too. Perfect! (how did you find the clean up? I found it a bit of a nightmare! but then i did leave it to dry out...oops!)

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    1. Thanks Anna. The clean up went well, but I kept it wet. I kept it in a huge plastic bin and made sure to put a lid on it.

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    1. I didn't let any sculptures dry so we'll have to try that next time. We kept the clean mud as a sensory play....now you have got me thinking Nikki.

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  4. Hi I am so inspired by so many of your activities! I teach preschool and am looking forward to sharing some of your ideas with my classes In the fall. FYI I think if you want the. Lean mud to be "fluffier" tearing the toilet paper into tiny pieces before adding might make a difference. Also you could add more water too. :)

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    1. Thanks so much Tami. Pleaes share when you do some of the activities with your students. I think you are right about tearing the TP into smaller pieces and adding more water may help. Clean Mud has a unique feel that I have never felt with other sensory ideas.

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  5. Fascinating - I've never heard of clean mud before. It does look like a lot of fun! Have a fantastic summer!

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  6. I would like to make this but wondering if it would work to use a bar of Tear free soap(Johnson and Johnson makes one)? I have a 2 yr old that will be playing with it and would prefer to use tear free, just in case. Thoughts?

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    1. I think it would work and let me know how it goes. It may even work better.

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  8. We just made clean mud! Except we microwaved the Ivory, and added a bit of shaving cream. It was wonderful

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