Dinosaur Pasta Necklace

My boys adore dinosaurs. They love they way dinosaurs look. They love dinosaur names. They love playing with their dinosaur toys. They love pretending to be dinosaurs.

You would think this love of dinosaurs would lead to absolute joy when visiting our local dinosaur museum. Instead, you can find our boys cowering behind us, hugging our legs as they gaze up at the gigantic dinosaur models. When dinosaur roars echo through the exhibit, our little guys want to scurry and hide.

Still, they do love dinosaurs! As I do our weekly grocery shopping, I spot dinosaur pasta. How could I resist?

With so many varieties of pasta, the pasta craft possibilities seem endless. Make a pasta necklace that tickles your fancy.

Obviously, the dinosaur pasta tickled our fancy!

Materials:
* Dried pasta of your choice. We had some nice large penne and adorable dinosaur shaped pasta.
* Paint of your choice. We couldn’t go past our glitter paint.
* Stiff elastic or cord.

Method:

Paint your pasta. My boys had two methods of doing this: using the paintbrush; and dumping it in the paint to cover it with paint. Surprisingly, the dumping it in paint method seemed to yield better results.

Let the painted pasta dry. We left ours on a plate for a few days. As it dries, the pasta soaks up the paint and becomes wonderfully vibrant.

Thread the pasta onto the elastic or cord. Experiment with different colours and patterns – this is the creative part! Play around with the possibilities. At first we alternated the dinosaurs and penne; then we decided to place all the dinosaurs together in the middle of the necklace. We grouped the dinosaurs into colours and threaded them on in a ‘rainbow’ sequence – lighter colours on one end and darker colours on the other. We finished the necklace by placing the penne on both ends of the necklace.

When you’re happy with your design, knot the ends together to complete your necklace.

Can’t get enough of dinosaurs?
Check out these other fun dinosaur activities for a roaring good time.

N & M: 4 years, 2 months
E: 2 years, 1 month
August 2012

(I first published a version of this post on KidsActivitiesBlog.com)

The post Dinosaur Pasta Necklace by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.

Just last week, my boys were keen to make something; an uncommon event which caught me unprepared. My eyes scoured around for something to work with. Our huge family sized bag of uncoloured pasta presented itself. I needed something quick to make the pasta snazzy. So, instead of coating our pasta with food colouring, we dressed them up in tin foil.

Materials to source: Tin foil, penne pasta

Set the stage for play:  Cut up small pieces of tin foil just large enough to just wrap around the edges of the penne. Roll up individual pieces of penne. (My preschool sons enjoyed helping me roll up the penne in the foil. My toddler was determined, but his fingers didn’t seem to be on the same page as his determination). Press firmly around the edges and grooves of the penne for more definition. Place a combination of plain penne and tin foil penne in a large tray with some bowls and pipe cleaners.

We sorted, poured and threaded pasta. My toddler enjoyed threading the pasta immensely.

I extended the activity for my preschoolers to some simple sequencing of plain and tin foil pasta.

Tin foil pasta. A snazzy way to dress up pasta for play and crafts and here’s my favourite part: no drying time required.

N & M: 4 years
E: 1 year, 11 months
June 2012

The post Tin Foil Pasta by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.