Make something with pasta.
Pasta! It’s a multicultural food that can be found in everything from Pad Thai to Mac ‘n Cheese. Kids love to eat it. It’s got an amazing shelf life. And most of us already have it stockpiled in our pantries.
We eat a lot of it in our home, and it’s made an appearance in more than one art activity. For example: Drippy Gravity Painting
So now I ask you…what can you do with pasta? The project should be executed by children, but adults are welcome to facilitate or collaborate if the mood strikes!
To join in on the Experiment
- Use pasta (noodles, macaroni, ramen…it’s up to you!), along with any other materials of your choice
- Attach a photo of the experiment along with a description of what you and/or your child/ren did in the comment section below.
- There is no deadline for this project.
If you’re looking for inspiration, here are some thoughts to get you started:
- Take the pasta outside, and make an installation in the dirt, sand, or sidewalk
- Attach it to another object with a glue gun. Attach it to paper with white glue.
- Dye it, sort it, print it, make patterns with it
- Make a batch of fresh pasta
- String it up like a necklace or bunting
- As a provocation, put a variety of art materials in front of your child (i.e. pasta, markers, yarn, glue), and see what they come up with
Instructions for adding an image file
- Click on the “Choose File” button (below the “Submit” button)
- Choose a JPEG file from your computer
- Type in a description of your experiment into the comment text box
- Click the “Submit Comment” button
We made caterpillars and butterflies!
http://childcentralstation.blogspot.com/2010/06/painted-pasta-butterflies-and.html
(Sorry, I don’t have a jpg on my computer, but the link has photos!)
Thanks for the link…even better, with all of those great pictures! I noticed that you have your kids using a glue gun (yay!). I just introduced one to my daughter today (!!), and I can already see how it’s going to open up a ton of creative possibilities for her.
we did it. Simone wanted to make heart winged butterflies and so we incorporated the pasta as the bodies which made it very easy to create a butterfly mobile.
of course I participated. our projects are what makes being a mom fun. ……. so I leave the yard to feed Spencer and I leave Simone alone with the supplies, a hot glue gun to name one. when I returned she had created these awesome glue gun swirly things in a bucket she had filled with glitter, pasta, beads and water. had she tried doing that while I was present, I would have put a quick stop to it and asked her to finish the first project. “focus Simone”. well jokes on me because she succeeded at creating with a critical mind. ” see mom, you have to swirl the water before you put the glue in the water.”
Thanks for the story and pretty photo. Extra props to you for giving Simone access to real art materials. Children have a huge capacity to dream up big ideas, and can amaze us with their uninhibited creations. I’m always playing with that tension between being hands-off and collaborative. My education tells me to step aside and encourage my child to create on her own, while my daughter begs me to work alongside her!! And there have been times when she flat-out refuses to make things if I don’t participate. xo
I have some ideas what to do with spaghetti:
http://bintijua.blogspot.com/2011/01/sculptures.html
http://bintijua.blogspot.com/2011/01/scary-spaghetti.html
These are fabulous! I just bought hotdogs, and we’ll be making spaghetti spiders this weekend!
Oh, spiders didn’t come to my mind, great idea! Have you already tried them? How did it go?
Pinkie! We made them, and it was not only fun, but delicious too. I think I may write up a post about it, so stay tuned 🙂 Thanks to you!!
Thanks for sharing this…..checked out Pinkie says….and she has the beginning of a wonderful blog!
I just did three spaghetti activities with my preschooler last week. I blogged about them here: http://www.mommysavers.com/2011/03/3-fun-preschool-activities-using-spaghetti/
We did name writing practice with cooked spaghetti, painting with cooked spaghetti, and bead lacing with dried spaghetti. The link also has a video of her making a spaghetti worm crawl along the floor.
I love the spaghetti/hot dogs do it yourself idea. Too bad we don’t have hot dogs here.
Susie! You are well on your way to mastering the art of spaghetti! What a lot of fun! I love the whole post, and I’m so happy you stopped over here to share this with us.