The Empowered Educator

Inspiring ideas, training and resources for early learning.

Spaghetti in the morning…why?

by 13 Comments

Why are you cooking spaghetti in the morning? This is the quite valid question i must admit, asked by Miss Teen when she got up. ‘It's not raining!' was my reply!(was in a hurry!!) Luckily she is used to my creative endeavours and figured out i was getting spaghetti painting ready for the toddler twosome for outside play!(Smart girl that one!!)

It wasn't raining this morning…unlike in many other areas surrounding us that are now experiencing their worst floods since 1976…my heart goes out to all the people having to leave their homes today!

We decided to make the most of it and get out to do some spaghetti printing fun! I just love this activity for toddlers as it has so many facets to explore and really doesn't make that much mess to clean up although i would always do it outside!!

Braving the grass that seems to be jumping out of the ground after all this rain i let the toddler twosome explore the cooked and oily spaghetti …i find if you add a little oil to the spaghetti if gives a much more sensory and slippery activity and it doesn't all just clump together!

I sprinkled orange and yellow edicol dye onto the plain spaghetti and let them mix it in….what a discovery…..
 Of course you could also do with drops of food colouring if that is what you have to hand!
 It still amazes me how different they are when it comes to art activities, Tara likes to investigate, taste and touch first……
Ruby likes to dive right in and mush everything around!
She also discovered with this activity that it was lovely to bend down and rest the spaghetti against her face, she occasionally nibbled a little but it seemed to be more about the touch and smell aspect…it looked hilarious but of course i didn't mention that to the poor child!
Can you pick who is the neat freak already at age 18 months?
We then started to take some prints which added another fun aspect to the activity…..i laid some paper down on top of the spaghetti and Tara had fun patting it down and smoothing with her hands….

 Lift it up and have fun picking off the bits of spaghetti stuck to the page…great for fine motor skills!

Have yourself a little taste of all that fine work….
And leave the print to dry…the spaghetti makes some great squiggly patterns…you get a more vibrant print when you use darker colours like green and blue rather than the lighter ones we used today (but that is all we had on hand!)
The girls also liked  ‘arranging' the spaghetti onto the paper
 The printing took second place to the sniffing for Ruby though bless her!
You can leave some spaghetti on the paper…it usually dries quite crispy and children like to explore the difference from the soft spaghetti they played with earlier…it will break off though unfortunately! 
Tara could have stood here all day just squeezing and dropping i think!
After decorating our favourite chair i think Ruby decided she was a little tired after all…

We've packed up the spaghetti into the fridge for another day and as i watch the dark clouds rolling back in i am so glad we made the most of the outdoors this morning! Hopefully this weekend will hold a few more glimpses of the sun as the toddler twosome (and mummy if we are honest) are alot happier when we get outside to explore, run and create….just as toddlers should!

I hope you have a lovely weekend and manage some relaxation with family and children (and perhaps a little time without, hehe!)

Thanks so much for dropping by….

Comments

  4. multiplemummy says

    That looks like brilliant fun and my twins would just love this! Once it is warmer here I can do some more messy outdoor play! I love the state of their T-shirts after!

    Pinning this!

    Thanks for linking and sharing to Family Frolics.

    Kerry

    Reply

  12. Catherine says

    This looks like just the best fun Jode, squeezing and smelling and tasting. I hope you had some sunshine your way for the girls to run around and play. x

    Reply

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