LITTLE EXPLORERS


Slimy, Gooey, Oozy Mud!


BY MISTY EVES The Dirty Facts


The best part about rainy days is that you get to play in mud! But have you ever wondered what exactly mud is? Here are some amazing facts about mud and all things dirt.


• Dirt is made by erosion, when wind and water wear down large rocks into smaller pieces. It can take 100 to 10,000 years to make two centimetres of topsoil from rock.


• Mud is both organic (things that are or were once alive) and non-organic (things that have never lived, like rock).


• The mud oozing through your hands could be from the other side of the world. Grains of sand are as small as 0.0001 millimetres and when the wind blows across faraway deserts it sweeps up tiny grains. As the air floats around the world it drops the grains down onto you. Maybe that’s how dirt gets in your tent!


• There are 300,000 tiny things floating in every beach-ball-sized space of air.


• A spoonful of mud can contain 70 billion bacteria! Bacteria are tiny blobs of living matter that can cause disease—so wash your hands after playing in mud.


MUD HOP This relay race is similar to hopscotch but is played in the mud with sticks instead of chalk.


• Gather up six sticks per person and find a large patch of mud.


• Lay out your sticks about 50 centimetres apart so they form a row that looks like a ladder without sides.


• Stand at the beginning of your stick ladder and when the referee says “Go!” hop over the sticks on one foot. If you put two feet down or touch a stick, you have to go back to the beginning.


• When you get to the end of the row, pick up the last stick and hop back.


• Then start over again and pick up the next-to-last stick. • The first person to pick up all their sticks wins!


Mud Bottle Mud is not just soil. It is made up of many different materials including silt, sand, gravel, rotting leaves, food, sticks, roots and insects. Here’s a craft that shows the different layers that make up dirt.


Throw a few handfuls of dirt into a clear jar and fill the jar with water. Give the jar a good shake and leave it for a few days. The dirt will settle into layers inside your jar.


The top layer is muddy water with the really fine bits of dirt floating in it.


The second is humus, a dark layer made up of newly rotten leaves, food, insects and other organic matter.


The third is clay, a slimy, slippery goop made up of extremely tiny par- ticles.


The fourth is called silt, which is mud formed from tiny pieces of fine grains. The fourth is sand. The last is gravel, which are large pieces of rock particles.


6 FAMILY CAMPING


A MESSY PUZZLE Can you find the different things that make up mud in this word search?


Dead Organic Matter: LEAVES STICKS ROOTS INSECTS FOOD


S L


Living Organic Matter: FUNGI MOLD BACTERIA


Non-Organic Matter: SAND ROCKS ASH


E A V E S I


T E H O O I T A S T C E S N I


F


K S S G 0 H C E C D O O F S O L


B A C T


F U N G I E


K S E D N A S A


R O O T S T I C H M A


R I A MAKE A MUD PRINT


Do you take souvenirs home with you to remember your camping trip? Next trip make a mud print of an animal track.


MATERIALS


• Strip of cardboard • Water • Plaster of Paris (a white powder that hardens after being wet)


• Plastic container • Stick • Tape


Go on a hike near a muddy riverbed and look for animal footprints. When you find one:


• Mix the plaster of Paris and water in the container according to the measurements on the side of the package. Use the stick to stir it until it is as thick as a milkshake.


• Roll the strip of cardboard into a circle, tape it closed and press it into the mud so it encircles the print.


• Pour the plaster over the footprint until it is about two centimetres deep.


Now leave the footprint to dry for about half a day. Then lift the cardboard off and carefully wipe away any dirt.


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