Everyone who knows me knows that I love spaghetti! And really just all things pasta in general. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Sofie loves this activity! But man I wasn’t expecting this to be such a big hit. Not only did the colors come out so bright and beautiful, but seeing them all mixed together in a box spaghetti mess was so much fun. Plus it worked out as a great post nap snack.
Heres how to do it:
Cook spaghetti or any other noodles as you normally would (boil for 12minutes)
Drain the noodles in a colander and rinse with cool water (I picked them up with my hands to make sure they rinsed well so that they would be slippery and not sticky)
Fill 6 plastic ziploc bags with 2-3 tablespoons of water. I used and entire box of spaghetti divided into 6 bags / 6 colors so I used 2 tablespoons of water
Add 3 drops of pastel food coloring into the bags and let it fully saturate the water. I recommend the pastel colors because they come out so bright and vibrant!
grab a handful of noodles and drop them in the bag. Mix them up until the noodles are coated with the dyed water.
Place the bags in the refrigerator overnight. Depending on how well you mixed them, you might get an ombré effect if the bottom noodles are sitting in more saturated water. For the most part the noodles with absorb all of the water but if you want to avoid the ombré look, drain any excess water before you put them in the fridge.
Take the bags out the next day and place them in this awesome compartment serving tray. This one is perfect because it comes with a lid so you can seal it up and save it to play again later. We used it two times in one day and then tossed the leftover spaghetti.
Set up your sensory play table with this Melissa & Doug pots and pans set and color flashcards from GoodnightFox. We practiced mixing and color matching and it was so much fun!
Head over to Instagram.com/GoodnightFox to check out some adorable videos of this activity in action.