Rainbow Spaghetti

Rainbow spaghetti sensory play was an amazing idea. One of the best ideas I have had yet. The kids absolutely loved it and it went perfect with our rainbow study (following along with The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister) However, keeping said spaghetti in the sensory table for two days was an awful idea. Luckily I checked the spaghetti on Friday before leaving for the weekend and avoided returning to some crazy science experiment on Monday. At least the kids enjoyed having the door propped open so I could stick the table outside while I cleaned out that awful disaster.

Back to the good news of the experiment. My rainbow spaghetti process:

• Boil spaghetti - I used two large boxes and one regular size box of spaghetti. This was definitely enough for 8 kids. I probably could have gotten away with a little less.

• Let spaghetti cool then separate into containers for coloring

• Add food coloring and vegetable oil as desired. I used quite a bit of food coloring  (10-20 drops) to make the color as dark as possible. Which is why I had to run to the grocery store at 10:45 pm to get more food coloring. The vegetable oil was to keep the spaghetti slimy. You honestly don't need to use too much of this. Just enough to keep it from sticking together. I also had a friend suggest using coconut oil next time. The vegetable oil flared up some dry skin problems on my hands. I must not have mixed my red and blue very well because my purple looks awful in the picture below. However, in the table it looked really good.

 The kids absolutely loved digging into the spaghetti. Surprisingly they weren't at all hesitant. I poured each color in separately and they had them all mixed within about 30 seconds. I threw in plates, bowls, and spatulas/spoons we had in our kitchen play area. I also had 3 tongs at home I bought for the husband's graduate percussion recital for about $2 at one of those party stores. They loved using the tongs so I would highly recommend investing in those.

  

 

With how cheap this project was I would definitely consider doing it again. Tips for next time though:

• Use the biggest pot possible to boil all the spaghetti in so I don't have to do two rounds. Only reason I had to do this was because I decided I wanted more spaghetti after boiling the first batch.
• Make sure to have enough food coloring to avoid late night trips to the store.
• Try coconut oil and hopefully my hands won't be in pain for the next three days.
• Clean spaghetti out of sensory table the same day as put in the table. If I had cleaned out the spaghetti and refrigerated it, there is a chance I could have gotten another go out of it.

Sensory table activities are probably some of my favorite even though they are the messiest. Most activities in the table will keep the kids attention for at least half an hour. Any ideas of what to try next in the table are definitely appreciated!