Macaroni Day

There is a day for everything!  I actually really like that there is because it helps with ideas on things to do with the kids.

Supplies needed:
-noodles (any kind you can thread through)
-rubbing alcohol
-food coloring
-paper towels
-cookie trays
-baggies
-rubber/plastic glove
-yarn
-tape
-paper cups
-pipe cleaners
-hole punch

This list seems long but it’s likely a lot of things you already have.

The directions I found for dying noodles was a capful of rubbing alcohol and 5 drops of food coloring in a baggie then add in about 10 noodles at a time for the best color.  Having never done this before I followed directions.  After I had the first batch of noodles in I realized this wasn’t going to be very clean or efficient.  You can’t just dump the noodles because there’s still a lot of liquid left in the baggie.  So, I found myself a glove to pull them out.  The next issue was getting more noodles in the bag…you have to hold the baggie open, still have a glove with food coloring on it and are trying not to spill/stain anything.  I gave up and just poured more alcohol and random amounts of food coloring in and filled the bag with noodles.  It worked just fine.  You need to manipulate the noodles around for a little bit to make sure they are all getting wet but I thought the color turned out just the same as it was only doing a few at a time. I would also recommend using freezer bags as the noodles punctured holes as I swished them around in just a little sandwich baggie.  I will say though that mixing colors to make more fun colors didn’t work.  The orange turned out the same as red and the teal turned out the same as blue.  It must have something to do with the color of the noodle because it looked like the right color in the baggie.  The tutorial I read also said they had a hard time getting purple, it always turned out black.

Some of them liked throwing the noodles more than threading them!  It was a good sensory bowl too I guess.