A fun idea for a mud kitchen using sunflowers! This sunflower sensory cafe is a great messy play activity that allows for lots of imaginative play. It’s simple to set up with just some water, food colouring, flowers and pots and pans.
This type of activity can be easily adapted if you do not have a mud kitchen. It can be just as much fun to have some coloured water in a plastic container with whatever flowers you have to hand. My sunflowers were starting to wilt, so I wanted to make use of them before throwing them out. Then just add jugs, sieves, spoons and pots that you have lying around the house.
What you’ll need for your sunflower sensory cafe:
- A plastic container filled with water
- Yellow food colouring
- Sunflowers
- Jugs, bowls, pots, pans, sieves, whisks etc.
- Optional – lemon slices
- Optional – Order forms
Alternatively, you could use any kind of flowers that you may have in the house – it doesn’t have to be sunflower specific. The children could make flower potions!
I love how open ended this type of activity is. It is so easy to set up and makes use of whatever you have at home – there is no need to buy anything or spend hours setting it up. Both my 2 and 9 year old enjoyed this activity.
How this supports development:
Physical – Sensory water play allows for lots of scooping, pouring and mixing which are great for physical development and hand-eye coordination skills.
Communication and language – I created a ‘cafe’ theme to allow for lots of communication and language opportunity. Children can serve their customers, take orders and serve their sunflower food!
Understanding the world – This activity allows for plenty of imaginative play. The children can role play when serving in their cafe/kitchen and also allows for lots of hands-on learning about plants and flowers.
Expressive art and design – Children are free to create in their kitchen however they wish and allows for plenty of creative thinking.
If you are on the lookout for a mud kitchen, this one is from TP Toys and I would highly recommend https://www.tptoys.com/products/tp-deluxe-wooden-mud-kitchen-fsc-sup-reg-sup-certified?variant=37634451832997¤cy=GBP&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADhsXvzkJaEZL3iu5cKGmYpjE4eCF&gclid=CjwKCAjwlbu2BhA3EiwA3yXyuyByAzGdkDBUUrBytEDbgzac1XqbKb6i_7nd3-Phmcuzp-b5ZrqaJxoC0n8QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
If you like sensory/messy play ideas, you might also like to try https://theeducatormum.co.uk/how-to-set-up-an-ice-cream-sensory-play-tray/.