Play and Learn with Pasta

We dyed pasta for the first time and it was, as my 4 year old would say, "easy peasy lemon squeezy!" We followed this tutorial from Happy Hooligans on how to dye pasta.

I've been wanting to try this for awhile now and what motivated me was that a few weeks ago we were up to letter N for our letter of the week.  I thought a noodle or pasta activity would be appropriate so I gathered up some materials and got to work.

First, my preschooler glued on some noodles to form the letter N.  I wrote out the letter, applied some glue and stuck the noodles on top.  This activity helped with recognizing the uppercase N and we also went over the sound "N" makes.

Playing with a manipulative like dyed pasta is perfect for making patterns, which is exactly what my daughter did while gluing on the pasta.  It was a proud Mommy moment when my daughter took it upon herself to make a pattern and than tell me proudly of her accomplishment!

Next, I used some silicone cups that were the colors of the dyed pasta allowing my daughter the opportunity to sort by color.

 For some one to one correspondence I added a small piece of paper with a number on it and inserted them into the cups.  My daughter than counted out the noodles and put them into the appropriate cups.

We had alot of fun learning about the letter N!

Most of us probably have at least one box of pasta hiding in our kitchen cabinets or pantry making playing with pasta a fun and educational activity that you can do on a whim!