Today it was rainy outside so we couldn’t go for our typical walk to the park. So I was noodling around on what to do and decided to try out this rainbow noodle sensory bin! It’s so hard to find activities to keep a one year old entertained — especially when she puts everything in her mouth. So food based seemed like a safe way to get messy and have some fun. I had to make a few adjustments to the recipe since I didn’t have all of the ingredients on hand but it all seemed to work out fine.
I love how simple this was too make — I plopped Sofie in a high chair and fed her lunch front of the stove while cooking the noodles. Here’s what you need ingredients wise:
noodles (I used spiral but you can also use spaghetti
food coloring
a few drops of oil
a sensory tub or bowl
Talk about mama multi-tasking! So I boiled the noodles real quick and then drained them and rinsed them in cold water. This brought them down to room temperature quickly so that I could get started on the coloring.
So I only had a few food coloring colors on hand so I had to improvise because I wanted to make a full rainbow. I started with the colors I had - 1 drop of oil to help coat the noodles and 1 drop of coloring. I pour 3 scoops of noodles into each plastic bag and then handed them off to Sofie to mix them up. Just playing with the noodles inside the plastic bags was a great sensory experience.
for one year olds, it’s so hard to find activities that are safe for them to put in their mouths. So I was glad this was something that kept her preoccupied. For the yellow, orange and green I used turmeric to get the colors based on what I had. Blue and yellow mixed to make green. Red and yellow mixed to make orange. They weren’t perfect, but came out close enough. :P
It took her a while to get the noodles coated and mixed so I lended a hand on that part. She loved squishing and squashing the noodles and I will admit I enjoyed it too!
It’s important to take the noodles out of the bags and let them dry before you play with them so that the food coloring doesn’t dye yours hands or stain your clothes. But if you let them dry out too much, they become sticky rather than smooth and slippery.
I left them out to dry on a baking sheet with a paper towel to absorb the food coloring. These sensory noodles were so enticing Sofie was having a hard time resisting the urge to touch them! But soon enough, it was her nap time and we let them dry while she slept.
When she woke up from her nap we got dressed and took the noodles outside to our sensory table to play.
I love doing sensory activities outdoors and parking them with concepts were working on learning. So we grabbed our Goodnightfoxstudio.etsy.com weather flash cards and bugs flashcards and talked about rainbows, rain, and the bugs that it brings to our porch.
Then it was time to dig into the noodles. At first Sofie was a little hesitant— she picked a few noodles out rather than diving all in. She definitely snagged a few to snack on! But that’s what’s great about edible sensory activities, I guess.
As she began to explore, she plucked out some noodles and threw them on the floor. She walked around with others. It was so fun to watch her use the noodles in ways I was completely surprised by!
Some she enjoyed eating and some she enjoyed stomping on!
Then we snagged our rainbow flash cards and started talking about rainbow colors. We repeated them all - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple — and matched them up with the noodle colors.
Eventually Sofie dug into the bin of noodles and mixed them all up! Several made their way to the floor — only to be eaten by Milo later on that day. Look how fun the colors look all blended together!
Major spillage happening here! But this is why I enjoy sensory play outdoors. I don’t have to freak out about the mess or getting food coloring on the counter tops. It’s a great way to make the experience carefree for everyone. And it’s super clean up friendly.
My favorite part was watching Sofie find fun places to stick the noodles. She found holes in the aderondack chair on our porch and enjoyed going back and forth to the table to grab noodles to poke through the holes.
More great Rainbow Activities
Looking for more awesome rainbow activities? Check out these awesome memory games, color flashcards, and weather flashcards.
