Color and Shape Sensory Play Ideas: Rainbow Noodles

Do you ever have those days where you see something on Pinterest, you think I can do that, you try it and it is a fail?  #Pinterestfail  In a lot of ways this sensory play idea was a fail for me.  I want to tell you what went wrong for me so that you can still try it and learn from my mistakes.


I initially found the idea HERE on Growing A Jeweled Rose.  She suggested just adding food coloring to cooked noodles.  Easy enough.  Then I found Fun at Home with Kids HERE and she suggested liquid water colors since you wouldn't need as much to make the vibrant colors.  I thought I have liquid water colors, I'll try that.  So I cooked a huge batch of noodles and but some in a ziploc bag and added liquid water colors.  But I had to add a lot and I still didn't have a vibrant red.  The water colors are a lot more expensive than food coloring so I stopped after one color and switched to a mix of the two.

This was my hands after adding liquid water colors and squishing the bag.  Ugh.  Thankfully, I had Lava soap on hand and it took the color right off.

 I continued adding colors and trying to get them as vibrant as possible.  I also added a little olive oil to keep the noodles from sticking too much.

The results looked okay and the girls were excited to dig in.

 I put the noodles in two tubs because I didn't have one big enough and I thought it might help if they each had their own.  They played and explored with their hands and then did some stirring with spoons.

 Then I suggested they trade some colors so that they could have all the colors of the rainbow.

 They had a lot of fun with this and loved digging into the noodles.  I was a little worried about what all that color would do to their hands but this was the worst of it and that is mostly pieces of noodle on her hand that have color on it so it washed right off.  My wood spoons were covered in color but that washed out in the dishwasher.

 Our bigger problem was that this was what was left on the patio after they played.  We attempted to pick up as much as we could but a lot of it had been stepped on and squished.  Ugh.  I finally took the hose to it and had to really spray hard to get all the noodles up and in the garbage.  Good thing daddy wasn't home to witness this.  I probably should have put a table cloth or a tarp down before they started playing.  #mommyfail

And in another genius move, I thought maybe if we save these noodles in their plastic containers, we could play again.

No. No.  Just no.  Trust me.  This is a one and done activity.  This week (so maybe two weeks since we did this), K was looking for activities to do and asked what was in the box.  I looked over and noticed the sides looked weird.  I opened the lid and just about gagged.

Absolutely disgusting.  Stinky condensation spilled on my floor.  I had what looked and smelled like vomit in the box.  In trying to dump it in the garbage some of it spilled onto a rug in my kitchen so I ended up tossing it.  I am gagging as I type this.  Seriously so gross.  My mom was here when it happened and said I should have turned it into a science lesson for K.  I was like how could I do that when I couldn't even breathe while I was cleaning it??

So trust me.  If you try this out, don't save it for another day.  Pitch it.  #lessonlearned #mommyfail

For more ideas for teaching colors and shapes, click HERE for my Preschool Mini Unit.