This was a really easy to do and fun messy play activity that my 3 year old daughter liked helping to create and both her and my 8 month old son loved playing with. There was just a bit of tidying up and wiping down afterwards!
You will need:
- A fair amount of cooked and cooled spaghetti
- Food colouring
- Some small dishes to mix in or sandwich bags (one for each colour)
- A floor covering or tough tray to play on (we used a wipeable table cloth)
What to do:
1. Place a small amount (about 5ml) of water into each of the small bowls or sandwich bags and add a few drops of food colouring.
2. Divide the spaghetti into how ever many colours you have and mix into each bowl.
3. Leave for 5/10min.
4. Set out each spaghetti colour on the play mat and have fun!
Hints and tips:
– My daughter loved experimenting with mixing colours of food dye, which could have been an activity in itself, we went with red, green, blue, orange and purple.
– I found the red colours came out the strongest but that could just have been down to the food colourings I used (the blue one was a bit older)
– We started using sandwich bags to mix the spaghetti and colouring but I found that unnecessary waste so using bowls and a mixer was much easier.
– As it was messy (and a hot day) I put the children in swimsuits but the food colouring wiped off their skin really easily and would probably wash out of clothes.
Recycle and Reimagine 