Sponsored content
By Sarah Seaman BSc PGCE MA
What is a Muddy Puddle Teacher?
In a nutshell, it is an outdoor learning approach that uses natural materials to teach from EYFS to KS2.
I created the Muddy Puddle Teacher Approach and at the heart of all we do is our Three Muddy M’s:
- Mother Nature
- Mental Health
- More Kids Moving
Where does our story begin?
In 2018 I left my indoor classroom teacher post for a whole country teacher post. I had been a classroom teacher for almost 11 years, and I had worn various hats, as is required as you move up the pay scale these days.
But one hat that I wore with pride was my outdoor learning crown and I was known at my infant school as the ‘outdoor princess’.
Since I was small, I have always had a strong connection with animals and nature. I particularly loved horses and, coming from a working class family at the time with little money to spare, I spent most of my childhood mucking out stables to get that free ride that made my week.
Going outside was my haven, not knowing then that I was dyslexic. Outside I could express myself, felt free and creative, plus I could spend time in nature.
When I saw that children showed progress, engagement and overall more positive behaviours when outside, I knew I had to take this further.
So that is exactly what I did.
In 2018 I left the classroom and in Mosborough, Sheffield, with the support of the council, I set up an outdoor classroom and I taught all of the curricula outside.
I experimented, made mistakes, learned, made mistakes again and I improved.
After gaining an alarming 30,000 followers on a small Facebook group I had created in three months, I realised how much this was needed!
I started to notice that what I had actually created with all this time outside was an easy-to-use outdoor learning approach that worked for educators like me but also tackled many educational issues such as obesity, mental health, speech and language and provided support to children with SEND.
I launched The Muddy Puddle Teacher Approach in 2019 and the rest is history.
Joining the MPT tribe
On our website we provide accredited CPD online training on Outdoor Learning and various other areas our approach touches upon.
This includes sustainability, biodiversity and Zero Waste Teaching, but also areas such as Muddy Phonics, Muddy Maths and more.
We also have over 600+ resources including worksheets, lesson plans and schemes of work.
We have two options in how you achieve this: online or we can come to you.
So far we have 16K active subscribers on our site and in just two years we have trained more than 70 schools who now are branding The Muddy Puddle Teacher crest with muddy honour.
I also have my first book out with Bloomsbury,
Where can I get free help and support?
We are devoted and passionate that this is a beneficial approach.
People can follow us on our channels, get inspired by our and download from our site.
If you are interested in our training but feel like the time isn’t right, just know that we are here for you and will help you in any way until then.
Because the time will come! You can also even try a
Free ideas to help you get the early years outside this summer
Whenever I am planning for learning outdoors, I instantly look to the weather. Not to look for rain and plan indoor activities, but to focus on what opportunities this weather bring and how I have to tailor my lesson towards this. In summer typically we get sun, warm weather and rain.
So here are some of my best tips:
-
It is important for children to learn about shade and that shade is necessary, so get those cardboard boxes out and decorate them with falling bits of nature by gluing them on. Talk about the word ‘camouflage’ and how animals build habitats like this as they also need shade. Move to make the smaller scale and shaded places for smaller animals. How will they do this?
-
Sun also brings shadows and children love to get chalk out and draw around shadows of objects and themselves. Why not make some shadow characters, by drawing around a friend’s shadow and giving them features? From this, create a class story by adding these characters, giving them names and allowing each child to create the next part of the story and so on.
-
Rain is a great opportunity to help children learn and talk about the water cycle. Help them understand that the rain comes from the clouds and forms a puddle before going back up into the sky. It is also a great opportunity to link in capacity so grab some containers and catch the drops as children will love it. Then add all the drops into one pot and record the volume. Do this each day when it rains and compare.
This is a sponsored blog post from - publishers of