Spaghetti art
Children love messy play. Messy play is good for them, it teaches them about texture, exploration, imagination, fine/gross motor skills and art. But above all, it’s FUN! However, many mums out there I know are cringing at the thought of all the mess. It can be difficult enough keeping on top children’s mess, let alone after messy play, so how about this…..
Spaghetti art
Spaghetti is a very easy, relatively mess free (for the grown ups), fun, creative way to play.
I cooked some pasta and let it cool. I then gave my children a couple of bowls each of spaghetti and a piece of paper, to see what we could do.
First, they enjoyed trying to create some pictures using the spaghetti. I showed them how you could make drawings, then we tried letters. It was a fun way to introduce some letter teaching. They loved experimenting with what they could create.
Next, they played with it. They explored the texture, the stickiness of it, its sliminess and the wobbliness. There were definitely lots of giggles going on. It also sparked lots of conversation about their experience of it, so fab for language development too.
If you don’t like mess, you could stop here, there is lots of fun to be had with clean mess.
However, if you are daring, then, I recommend taking the next step and introducing paint! I gave my girls a bit of paint of each colour to dip the spaghetti in and use it to create a picture. This was definitely messy fun. The spaghetti became very slimy.
The girls made prints with the pasta and they tried dragging the spaghetti across the page to make patterns. Then of course the ultimate happened…..a big splodgy mess! But hey, they loved it, so I don’t mind cleaning it up. We did also progress to a bit of finger painting too while the paint was out. Actually, I don’t think there was too much mess considering.
This was the aftermath of their spaghetti art……
Looks like great fun mess is good better than the mess from being bored.
Great fun, I’ve used dried pasta a to create pictures but never thought if cooking it. Will be one for us to try
Give it a go, it definitely brings a whole new dimension!
what a great idea! I love what they came up with, and the first stages – art without mess – are inspired for a clean freak like me! I always like the sunshine though, as we can get creative and messy outside.
Thanks, yes, the clean stage is great for mums! We can’t wait for summer to get messy outside too
Looks like great fun! We’ve played with spaghetti before but I’m yet to add paint to the mix! Will add to the list of things to try! You always have s many good ideas for playtime! I’ve just started a new linky about being creative, I’d love it if you could join in! http://becomingastayathomemum.com/creative-challenge-linky-1/
#minicreations
Thanks, it is definitely a good activity to try. I will take a look at your linky x
Love it! We will have to give this a go, thanks! x
Hope you enjoy it
we haven’t done cooked spaghetti at home but we have at messy play group, can’t quite bring myself to do it!!
Without the paint, cooked spaghetti play is not too messy, give it a go, it’s fun!
What a brilliant idea! I would never have thought of doing that. Pinning for later! Mel
Thanks
Brilliant idea! Haven’t done spaghetti play with Boo since she was a baby- and she just ate it! Will defo be getting some out next week! Thanks for the ideas!!
Hope you enjoy it as much as we did x
Lucas says – WOW, & MEGA WOW!!! Messy play – love it so much. Daddy taught me a trick that once you’ve cooked spaghetti, you can throw it at the wall to see whether its cooked properly………….. hmmmmmm
Grace says – Lucas! Stop it – you’re gonna get us in trouble. I do like this activity though – brilliant fun xx
Thanks for linking to #minicreations
Not sure I’ll tell my kids about the throwing spaghetti bit