Name: Dharmangi Shukla

WALO 1

Grade: Play House

Topic: Mud Play

WHAT HAPPENED?: We had organized Mud Play for our play house children with the basic idea of fine motor
development and related vocabulary development. The feel during the sessions was not at all satisfactory. We all
reflected that many children from our classes did not touch the mud at all and started crying. Few who explored mud,
did that for the sake of it and could come up only with making a big/small ladoo/ball and demonstrated their eagerness
to wash their hands and return to class.
WHAT DID I DO?: I was assigned the task of designing it and I happily accepted that with a thought of designing it in
some interesting manner. I was very excited about it and was intending to integrate students curiosity, creativity,
involvement, enjoyment; with the content that is fine motor development and related vocabulary development,
sensory exposure, etc. So I planned the mini project, shared and discussed it with my team members, team leader, took
their reviews, suggestions and finalized 5-7 days plan for Mud Play with an idea of taking them vertically deep rather
than horizontally long through some memorable experiences.
PROCESS:
Day 1: We go for Nature walk many a times in our routine days. So as a part of my plan for day 1, we were out for
Nature walk. Children observed the trees and plants in the campus. We had a discussion about where have they grown?
Children came up with: Mati, Dhul thus the teacher got an opportunity to introduce the word soil. Discussion was
carried forward about the colour of soil. Children tried to touch the soil and came up with suki che. We proceed to
other trees, they tried to touch that and came up with didi aa bhini che they could reason out that it was wet as it
might have rained or someone has poured water. They were excited about exploring it. But we didnt have enough
quantity for all of us. Children came up bringing the soil from the trees that we saw earlier. Teacher again grabbed the
opportunity, took them to the previous site and asked to touch and feel again and say if they both were same. Children
could not justify but came up with aama pani nakhi ne to aa bhini thai jay. They were desperate to explore it the same
day. So went for permission of our admin, who refused to allow us to use that soil for exploration showing the concern
for trees and plants rooted in that soil and offered to order black soil for us from outside. Students and admin had their
negotiations about the day of exploration. They also requested them for the circulars for their parents to send a pair of
old clothes for them to explore the mud fully as during the discussion they felt that clothes/uniform that they are
wearing may get dirty. Teacher kept on replacing their Gujarati words with English and introducing related terms
throughout the exploration

 Day 1:

Exploring Dry Black soil

Exploring Wet soil

Requesting Admin for soil

Requesting Admin for Circular

 Day 2: Students were divided into 2 groups of 10 students and 1 teacher. They recapped yesterdays experience and
discussion and came up with adding water to black soil. They poured the water into the black soil, mixed it and
prepared mud. Teacher introduced the term Mud They explored the mud to the fullest by kneading dough, making
chapatti, making ladoos of ganpati bapa, balls, throwing it off on floor (Plastic mat) and were surprised to see them
changing its shape and sticking on mat, making road and walking on it, surprised again by observing their foot prints on
mat, along with the feel of thandu lage che chote che

 Day 3: It was the day to explore the mud prepared by students, differently. We added manipulative like bottle tops,
pieces of broom sticks and twigs to give wings to their creativity.

Trees, Jungle

Hichako (swing)

Car

Gadi

 Day 4: The session was designed with a purpose of different kind of exploration again and concrete evidence. So,
vessels like small glasses, mugs and cups were added as manipulative along with mud, to be explored and used as
moulds to create variety of shapes (further plans were about preserving it for scientific observations, decorating it and
exhibiting it to the buddies and teachers of other grades and finally sending it home to their parents as an evidence of
childs creativity, exploration and hard work.

Ice-cream

Fountain

Light

 Anticipated Outcomes: I was intending for some different interventions for fine muscles development and related
vocabulary development that brings in at least 95% of students involvement, integrating few criteria related to my PLP.
i.e. Inculcating moral values like sharing the material, helping friends, taking turns and waiting for their turns in wearing
aprons, washing their hands, cleanliness aspect, sensory exposure, collaboration and communication, igniting curiosity
and an opportunity for students to express their imagination. Along with this I wanted students to have something
concrete in their hand at the end, which is been created by them and owned by them (can carry it home)
Actual Outcomes:
Success: The oral feedback given by my team mates and my own experience with our class children revealed that I
could achieve my goal in terms of good exercise with different intervention for fine muscle development and related
vocabulary development, inculcating moral values, cleanliness aspect, sensory exposure, collaboration and
communication, igniting curiosity and providing an opportunity of expressing the imagination to students. But in terms
of students involvement the average ratio was different during most of the sessions ie. Day 1: it was about 80% of
success, Day 2: it was about 75% of success, Day 3 and 4: 95% of success and it can be counted little more too.
Failure: My planning for day 4 with the purpose: students to have something concrete in their hand at the end, which is
been created by them and owned by them (can carry it home) failed as while exploring and using the vessels as mould,
we realized that mud is not coming out of it, that can allow us to preserve our work as modal. So we just explored the
mud using vessels and again adding broom stick pieces, twigs and bottle tops as manipulative.
My Learning: My learning from my success and failure is:
Affirmation on: Always try to design the plan or projects keeping childrens interest area, age appropriateness in mind.
It should be something that ignites their curiosity, provides enough opportunities to satisfy their curiosity and for hands
on experiences to take them vertically deep and bring in job satisfaction for them as well as us.
Be extra alert while designing any plan and project keeping the possibility of authenticity and application in mind.
Consult an expert or try to experiment and experience new things before finalizing it as an intervention for students.
Note: I have attempted all the questions on basis of my-our (team) experience and reflection on above mentioned
sessions taken till now. (i.e. till Day-4) whatever I am intending to take further is been mentioned in brief above (please
refer:Day 4) As a solution for Day 4 plan, I have thought of using clay moulds. I will be sharing that with my team and
will finalize upon further planning.