Make some paint prints using left over cooked spaghetti! A perfect tactile early art experience for toddlers and pre-schoolers.
Today we had some left over cooked spaghetti so we did a quick messy play and art activity after tea to use it up. It follows on from the string printing that we did last week and was even more tactile and fun!
I squeezed some paint onto a baking sheet and got Cakie to mix it up (we made purple in one corner, her favourite). Then she dropped in a few pieces of spaghetti to each colour paint and doused them until they were nice and gloopy.
Then she spent most of the time squishing her fingers in the paint and exploring the feeling of the slimy spaghetti. She just wanted to play with it rather than print with it!
I had a go at printing and then of course she wanted to join in, so she picked up the pieces and dropped them onto her paper.
She then repeated with other colours until a lovely, random pattern began to build up. She also added finger paint marks and mixed up the paint colours on the paper.
Her finished masterpieces!
Lovely abstract prints to frame, archive or use as wrapping paper or gift cards.
Lots of messy fun and a good way to use up those leftovers!
See a whole list of other print-making activities here!
We did the same thing a few weeks ago. Yours turned out much cuter than ours.
Now this is too much fun!! My little one is not fond of finger painting but maybe if we add the spaghetti….:-)
Kerri
I haven’t done this with my kids for a long time! Thanks for the reminder of how enjoyable it is!
Yes! LOVE this one … haven’t done it in a while. Thanks for the reminder!
Love the pic of the baby tasting it! (Def. what my lil’ guy would do!) A full sensory experience! 🙂
Stopping over from ABC & 123.
That looks great fun! I’ll definitely have to try that soon, thanks for the idea.
Looks like someone had LOTS of fun! And how funny that the little one tried to eat it! The final artwork is wonderful! What a great memory of a fun activity!
Thank you for linking up!!
Maggy
Wow, you’re brave! Don’t think I could cope with that one!
Very creative! My boys will love this, thanks!
Oh what fun! I’ve tried this before with yarn but this looks even better. Since the spaghetti is heavier I’m betting you have a bit more control over the wiggling. I’ve bookmarked this and can’t wait to have some leftovers so I can try it with my daughter.
We have done string painting before but I had never thought of using speghetti, that adds a whole new element of fun!
Hi Anna, this is Shilps.Just wanted to know what paints had you used as I have an 18 month old toddler and would like to try out these lovely ideas of your with him plus is it safe to eat the paint as mine would surely want to taste it.Thanks a lot in advance.
Hi Shilps! To be honest this was just regular kiddie paint (non-toxic and washable.) I didn’t intend for her to eat it but it didn’t seem to harm her 🙂 We did make some edible finger paint recently (look at popular posts on right hand side column) but not sure how bright the colours would be if dipped in paint. It may be worth tinkering with that recipe and seeing what works for you? Hope that helps and have fun with it! PS personally I would let an 18 month old at regular paint! He will love it.
I did this a couple of months ago! The kids absolutely loved it!! 🙂 Luckily no one thought of tasting it, I don’t know what I would’ve done if so!
http://www.littlerunningteacher.com/pasta-painting/
This is awesome!
I’ve featured this activity in my latest Craftulate blog post on Larder Crafts for Toddlers. You’re welcome to see it here http://craftulate.blogspot.com/2013/02/30-larder-crafts-for-toddlers.html – please grab a Featured Button if you’d like to. Thanks for the inspiration!