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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Rainbow Noodle Sensory Activity


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 of Hills and The Bachelor.  
(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 

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