Turn all that mixing, pouring and messy outdoor play into purposeful learning with these Mud Kitchen Recipe Cards.

My children loved playing in the mud kitchen, but I wanted a simple way to build the maths, science and literacy we were learning into their play without taking over the play.

That's why I created these recipe cards.

Instead of directing every child through the same activity, these cards give you 30 mud kitchen recipes in three differentiated sets. That's 90 illustrated recipe cards altogether, so you can choose how much structure your children need while keeping the experience playful and hands-on.

Bring Real Learning Into Mud Kitchen Play

There is so much learning happening when children make a mud kitchen recipe.

They count stones and sticks, measure dirt and water, compare quantities and explore capacity. They observe how materials change when they're mixed, make predictions, test their ideas and discover the properties of natural materials.

And there's plenty of literacy too. Children read ingredient labels, build vocabulary, follow directions and explore the structure and sequence of procedural texts. The included recipe-writing sheets let children take the next step and create their own recipes.

It's outdoor maths, science and literacy with a reason behind it.

Differentiate Without Taking Away The Play

The three sets use the same 30 recipes with different levels of support.

Set 1 includes labelled ingredients, exact quantities and a step-by-step method. Children read, count, measure and follow a procedure.

Set 2 includes labelled ingredients and suggested quantities but no method. Children still count and measure, but decide how they'll create the finished recipe.

Set 3 includes illustrated, labelled ingredients without quantities or instructions. It's the most open-ended option and works beautifully for non-readers and children who are ready to experiment independently.

You can choose one set for your group or use different sets at the same time.

What’s Included in this Printable Mud Kitchen Pack

• 90 illustrated mud kitchen recipe cards – 30 recipes in 3 differentiated sets

• Detailed ACARA V9 Foundation and Year 1 curriculum connections

• Kindergarten and Grade 1 Common Core curriculum connections

• Mud Kitchen and Mud Café signs

• Open and Closed sign

• 4 mud kitchen recipe-writing sheets, including lined and unlined options

• How to Use the Mud Kitchen sign

• Mud kitchen rules

• 4 printable prompts to encourage observation, creativity and inquiry

• Illustrated nature vocabulary mat

• 24 illustrated mud kitchen utensil labels

• Educational benefits of mud kitchen play poster

• Document wallet label for easy resource organisation

Everything You Need For Purposeful Outdoor Learning

Along with the 90 Mud Kitchen Recipe Cards, you'll receive Mud Kitchen and Mud Café signs, Open and Closed signs, four recipe-writing sheets, four learning prompt posters, an illustrated nature vocabulary mat, 24 illustrated equipment labels, mud kitchen instructions, an educational benefits poster and a document wallet label.

I've also included detailed ACARA V9 Foundation and Year 1 and Common Core Kindergarten and Grade 1 curriculum connections, so it's easy to see the learning behind the play.

Print the cards, laminate them and add them to your mud kitchen. Then stand back and watch a simple bowl of dirt, water and leaves become a reason to read, count, measure, investigate, problem-solve and create.

Help your students slow down, reflect and build confidence with these printable affirmation hearts. Designed for mindful colouring, this resource supports positive self-talk, emotional awareness and self-confidence in a calm, age-appropriate way. Perfect for Valentine’s Day, Kindness Week or everyday wellbeing centres. These affirmation hearts turn a simple colouring task into a meaningful SEL experience.

I created these after noticing how powerful “I am…” statements were in my own classroom. When children colour a heart that says “I am brave” or “I am kind,” they begin to connect those words to real experiences in their lives. It becomes more than colouring and becomes purposeful SEL learning.

Save Time With a Print-and-Go SEL Activity

These affirmation hearts give you a ready-to-use wellbeing activity that supports social and emotional learning without heaps of prep. Simply print, add some pencils or crayons, and place them in your calm corner, investigation area or Valentine’s craft table.

💡 As your students colour, invite gentle conversations about the affirmations. You’ll see your children begin to talk about their strengths, feelings and experiences. It’s such a simple way to build confidence and emotional vocabulary while keeping your students calm and focused.

What’s Included in These Affirmation Hearts

• 30 printable affirmation hearts to colour in two sizes for flexible classroom use

• 4 learning prompt posters to encourage reflection and discussion

• Teacher observation recording sheet for noting confidence and self-talk

• Assessment checklist to track SEL development and fine motor growth

• Student recording sheet to connect drawing, writing and self-reflection

• Document wallet label to keep everything organised and easy to store

Two spelling versions included: AU/UK and USA

It’s all designed to work together so you can set up a purposeful wellbeing activity in minutes.

Why Teachers Love Using Affirmation Hearts

Because they offer more than just a colouring page. These affirmation hearts will help your students practise positive self-talk, develop self-worth and build a stronger sense of identity. At the same time, your children are strengthening fine motor control, self-regulation and focus through mindful colouring.

The included recording and observation tools also make it easier to document social and emotional learning.

Ways to Use These Affirmation Hearts in Your Classroom

• Wellbeing or calm-down areas

• Valentine’s Day or Kindness Week activities and centres

• Morning tabletop activities

• Early finisher options that still feel purposeful

• Wet weather activities

• Simple homework that encourages positive conversations at home

This flexible resource can be used over and over throughout the year. Print out a set and have them ready whenever your class needs a calming, confidence-building activity.

If you want your classroom to become a calmer, more reflective space where your students can recognise their strengths and talk about their feelings, grab the full set of affirmation hearts, learning prompts and recording tools today!

Block play is already rich with learning but knowing how to extend it intentionally can be the tricky part.

These printable block play building prompts are designed to help you add purposeful play to your block area. Each prompt invites children to test ideas, solve problems, and think more deeply through construction, design, and experimentation.

Support Deeper Thinking in Your Construction Area

This resource gives you a ready-made collection of 64 open-ended block play building prompts that support early maths, science, engineering, and higher-order thinking skills in the early years classroom.

You’ll be able to:

• set up purposeful block and STEM play activities in minutes

• encourage more complex building and problem-solving skills

• gather authentic assessment evidence

Perfect for kindergarten and preschool teachers using play based learning.

What’s Included

• 64 printable block play building prompts as A4 posters (nature-inspired designs)

• The same 64 prompts in 4-to-a-page cards for rings, clipboards, or small displays

• 8 general building prompts - also in two sizes

• 12 illustrated construction vocabulary cards

• Teaching notes with play-based tips and ideas

• A printable student planning sheet for drawing and labelling builds

• Teacher planning & reflection template

• Construction observation checklist

• Document wallet label to help you keep everything organised

In the 64 Prompts you’ll get:

• 16 Engineering & Stability challenges (balance, strength, redesign)

• 16 for Measurement & Geometry thinking (height, width, shape, comparison)

• 16 Critical thinking prompts (testing, revising, problem-solving)

• 16 Creative thinking & Symbolic play challenges

Why These Block Play Building Prompts Work

Each prompt is intentionally open-ended, which means:

• one card can be used many times across the entire year (and in different areas – not just the blocks area)

• children can approach the same challenge in many different ways and with many different materials

• naturally differentiated to allow learning at different levels - all depending on the child

You might see measuring, testing, balancing, redesigning after a structure collapses, collaboration, or symbolic play. This often happens all from the same prompt!

That flexibility is what turns play into such a powerful learning pedagogy.

Ways to Use The Block Play Building Prompts

These prompts work beautifully:

• during investigation time in the block or construction area

• as STEM challenges in small groups

• as extension ideas for fast finishers

• for observation, documentation, and evidence of learning

Simply print, display, and watch your block play go to the next level.

Designed for Play-Based Classrooms

This resource supports:

• The Age-Appropriate Pedagogies Framework

• ACARA V9 (Measurement, Number, Space, Science Inquiry, Design & Technologies)

• Play based learning and inquiry

• Critical and creative thinking

• Executive function, persistence, and collaboration

If you’re looking for block play building prompts that respect children’s ideas and support intentional curriculum-aligned teaching, this pack will be a valuable resource in your classroom.

Save money and grab this big bundle of illustrated learning intentions. Use them to explicitly teach your Kindergarten, Prep and Preschool students what the English, Math, Science and HASS Foundation Stage learning intentions are.

The pictures will act as a visual prompt and help your students remember and better understand their WALT goals.

THIS SET CONTAINS VERSION 8 ENGLISH OBJECTIVES & BANNERS:

• 56 visual WALT goals or Learning Intentions for the Language strand

• 47 visual WALT goals or Learning Intentions for the Literature strand

• 83 visual WALT goals or Learning Intentions for the Literacy strand

• Content strand headings

• WALT banner

• English headings

AND THIS SET CONTAINS VERSION 9 MATH OBJECTIVES & BANNERS:

• 90 visual WALT goals or Learning Intentions for the Number and Algebra strand

• 71 visual WALT goals or Learning Intentions for the Measurement strand

• 7 visual WALT goals or Learning Intentions for the Statistics and Probability strand

• Content strand headings

• WALT banner

• Math headings

THIS SET CONTAINS VERSIONS 8 & 9 SCIENCE OBJECTIVES & BANNERS:

• 20 visual WALT goals or Learning Intentions for the Living Things Unit

• 17 visual WALT goals or Learning Intentions for the Materials and their Properties Unit

• 10 visual WALT goals or Learning Intentions for the Weather Unit

• 12 visual WALT goals or Learning Intentions for the How Things Move Unit

• Content strand headings

• WALT banner

• Science Unit

AND THIS SET CONTAINS VERSION 8 HASS OBJECTIVES & BANNERS TOO:

• 11 visual WALT goals or Learning Intentions for the History strand

• 11 visual WALT goals or Learning Intentions for the Geography strand

• WALT banner

• HASS Unit headings

These effective and thoughtfully aligned ACARA learning intentions will improve your student’s learning.

Research indicates that students who regularly discuss and are made aware of their learning intentions are more

• focused and for longer periods of time.

• more motivated and active in their learning.

• able to take responsibility for their own learning.

You will receive a total of 435 illustrated learning intentions aligned to the ACARA Foundation Stage curriculum and when you use them in your classroom, you will be giving your children the tools they need to take more responsibility for their own learning and achieve greater learning independence.

Maths and Science have been updated to Version 9 of the ACARA Curriculum.

In preschool and kindergarten, written learning intentions are somewhat ineffective because your young children are just not confident readers yet. When you refer to the written learning intention on display, all your little ones see is a collection of letters.

For this reason, I like to use illustrated learning intentions in my early childhood settings. Learning intentions with a pictorial representation will help your students remember and understand their learning goals.

Save yourself some time and lots of effort with these already done for you age-appropriate learning intentions.