Shhh...my first attempt at coloured pasta!

Despite all the homemade craft you see on this site, I really can be quite lazy! I have never seen the need to colour rice or pasta.  In fact to make rice play more interesting, I have been inclined to just add brown rice and lentils and voila - textured "coloured" rice {hmmm... maybe a future post}.

Mr 4 falls into the category of "I'm-a-boy-and-I don't-really-want-to-do-fine-motor-activities-thank-you-very-much".  He will do something if I insist or when he sees his sister doing it but keeping his attention with this "not-my-preferred-activity" can be a challenge. Sigh!

SO...when you need some colour in your life it is time to colour pasta {do you think someone could turn that into a song?}.  It wasn't as difficult or time consuming as I thought it might be.  Start by picking a warm day...it helps the pasta to dry faster!

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What do you need?

• dry uncooked pasta {I used penne and rigatoni}
• food colouring
• baking trays
• baking paper
• zip-lock sandwich-size bags
• lots of sunshine!

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What do you need to do?

1. Place the pasta into a zip-lock bag.  Use a different bag for each intended colour.

2. Add several squirts of food colouring into the bag of pasta.

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3. Seal the zip-lock on the bag and squish the pasta around until all pieces are covered with the food colouring.

4. Repeat steps 2 & 3 until you have coloured each bag of pasta with the chosen colours.

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5. Lay out the pasta in a single layer onto the baking tray (lined with baking paper).  Leave to dry (length of time depends on the sun).

6. Once dry, your pasta is ready for playing!

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How do you use this?

• Colouring the pasta was an activity in itself.  As you can see by the photos, Mr 4 was very involved with all the steps.  He loved squishing the food colouring around to cover the pasta.
  
• I set up the coloured pasta with several different strings.  I tied a piece of pasta to the ends of the string so that when Mr 4 started threading {lacing} the pasta didn't fall off the end.
  
• Mr 4 also likes to sort the pasta into colours.  Help the matching by using containers of the same colour as the pasta.
  
• The pasta becomes "pretend food" for cooking.
• The blue pasta has been used in rice play {notice the textures in the rice} to add water for the dinosaurs.
• Use the pasta with rice, playdough or kinetic sand.

WARNING - any necklaces or bracelets made must be worn by parent or therapist (or other) 
of child who has taken the trouble to make it!

Have you coloured pasta before?  How do your kids like to play with coloured pasta?

Note:  I am now on holidays and may be slow to respond to emails.  I'm hoping to post articles whilst I'm away but sometimes these things don't always work.  Thanks for your patience. Don't forget to check out the archives at www.yourkidsot.com. You can find articles grouped into categories for easy access!  Thanks for your support!