Toddler Art: Noodle Art

We had a nice group that had some new faces. The kids did really well listening to Noodles for Baby by Jamie Meckel. This board book was perfect for the noodle theme because it was about babies eating all kinds of noodles and getting messy. The kids thought the messy parts were funny.

For our first craft, we made our own plate of spaghetti using a paper plate with red and brown paint, yellow yarn, and cut out brown circles. We used pom poms attached to clothespins for the one and two years to get a better grip and they swirled their colors together to get "sauce." Then they added their yarn noodles and construction paper meatballs. The group really enjoyed playing with the paint with this one.

For our second craft, we decorated butterflies using colored pasta. The kids practiced their gluing and some of the older kids even made patterns using the different colors. In the future, I would like to try dying pasta with vinegar and try using half-down spaghetti as paint brushes.

This was a fun one and we had some playtime afterwards.

Preschool Picasso: Noodle Art

The theme of noodles was a nice, unique change for this Preschool Picasso program. 

We read Dragons Eat Noodles on Tuesdays by Jon Stahl, which the group really enjoyed and thought was funny.

For our first craft, we made flowers using noodles and construction paper. The group had construction paper stems they glued on and dot die-cuts to use as the center of their flowers. A variety of dyed noodles were put out for them to use as their flower petals. I dyed the pasta a day before using rubbing alcohol and food coloring. 

There is also another option of using vinegar and food coloring that I would probably try next time.

For our second craft, the group made fish using dyed macaroni noodles. They really enjoyed this craft and liked adding the googly eye to their fish.

This program definitely took more prep time because of dying the noodles, but it was really worth it to try something new and to see the kids enjoy making their crafts.

Other Books:

The Super Hungry Dinosaur Martin Waddell

The Great Pasta Escape Miranda Paul

Spaghetti-Slurping Sewer Serpent Laura Ripes

Oodles of Noodles Diana Hendry