Rainbow Noodle Sensory Activity
So I saw this idea
on Pinterest and thought what would be more fun for the kids than turning one
of their favorite foods different colors and then being told they can play with
it? Well Dylan, Jake and Emma agreed! This activity was one of our
favorites. Jake is currently obsessed with two things, pasta and monkeys,
so I knew he would be into this.
The setup:
During nap time I got to work! I
boiled a whole package of spaghetti noodles according to the directions on the
package. (You could probably use half a package of pasta for just one or 2 kids.. this made plenty) Don't over cook them and DON'T add any oil or
the food coloring won't absorb into the noodles. Next drain the water and
let the noodles cool for about 30 minutes. I used this time wisely by folding
laundry and catching up on my important TV shows like Real Housewives of Beverly
(Don't be jealous of my laundry pile)
Anyways... after the
noodles are cool and the laundry is folded, separate the noodles into different piles. You can do as few or as many colors as you'd like but I
went with 4 colors this time. I used red, blue, green and yellow.
It works out well that each of the kids have a different favorite color.
This prevents fighting. Emma is yellow, Jake is red, and Dylan is
blue.
I used large paper
bowls to mix it since is a bit messy and I didn't feel like doing any extra
dishes. If you don't want to use paper, it's just food coloring so it
will clean up easily. The trick to coating the noodles is to keep turning
them. I used 2 plastic forks. This way I could use the forks to also help
separate the noodles. I would add a few drops at a time until all the
noodles were coated. This process took about 20 minutes or so, but they
looked beautiful and I was anxious for the kids to wake up from their naps so they
could enjoy this new colorful noodle fun. However, you need to let the
noodles soak up the food coloring and dry, so I let them sleep and went back to enjoying
the peace and quiet in the house.
The activity:
For most of these
types of activities I always have them buckled into their boosters, I do this for many
purposes, but mostly so that I can contain the mess to the kitchen area only. I'm completely OCD when it comes to messiness so this helps me keep my sanity. Once they were ready I introduced the activity explaining to them how exciting
it was that the noodles changed colors, but that this also meant we couldn't
eat the noodles. We talked about all the colors and if they were bright
colors or dark colors and then I asked them which colors they would like in
their bowl. They all chose all four colors. I gave them forks so they
could twirl the noodles and plastic knives so they could cut them. Then I let
them explore and have fun. Next time I'll include tongs and safety scissors to
extend our noodle fun!
After they had
time to explore on their own I would ask questions. I would ask Emma to
find me a yellow noodle, then I would ask Dylan to find me a green noodle, etc.
I also wanted to talk about long and short so I held up 2 noodles of
different sizes and colors and asked them to tell me which noodle was the long
noodle. I would repeat it over and over. Emma and Jake got it right away
and by the end Dylan had caught on. They were having so much fun and I
always love to see their imaginations and creativity shine through when we do
these types of things. Emma was making snakes and Jake was making bananas
for his monkey that day.
Extension:
Since they were
having so much fun I decided to take the activity one step further. We've
been working on letter recognition and they've become very good at spelling
their names so I thought it would be fun to make letters on paper using the
noodles. I got regular computer paper out and the noodles stuck perfectly to
the papers. I helped them use the noodles to spell their names. They
handed me the noodle and told me what letter I needed to make. The best part, that
I hadn't intentionally planned, was that the food coloring rubbed off onto the
paper enough that it left the letter marks there. Once they realized this they
wanted to continue designing the paper, thus a further activity was created.
They ask to do this
activity all the time. It is a bit messy, but the food coloring comes off
their hands easily. I stored the noodles in ziplock bags in the fridge. I
tossed them after a week; I wasn't willing to test how much longer they would
have gone.
I hope this motivates
you to try it with your little one(s). Keep checking back for more activities
to come this week!
Xo
