Want to put together a fun, messy, sensory play activity for your kids for less than a dollar? This sensory tub cost me 59 cents! Seriously! Read on…..
Last week, R (3) was looking over my shoulder as I scrolled through Pinterest and he saw my pin for hosting a messy playdate from the lovely Crystal at Growing a Jeweled Rose. Messy play is one thing, I’ve never been shy about getting messy around here, but Crystal is one brave lady to host an entire play date based on messy play! I take my hat off to her. Anyway, the picture R saw was of a sensory tub filled with blue coloured spagetti. ”That looks like fun! Let’s do that!” (Honestly, I think R enjoys Pinterest even more than I do.)
This would have to be the cheapest sensory tub I’ve ever created for R. (Well, apart from the tubs we do which are filled with water, that is.) All I outlayed was 59 cents for the cheapest packet of spagetti I could find. The other components were items I already had in the cupboard.
Here’s what we created! Fun, right? 
So here’s how we made it. So quick and easy!
You’ll need:
- Food clouring (I used both gel and liquid food colouring. Both worked equally well)
- About 1 tablespoon of cooking oil.
- 1 packet of spagetti – cooked and divided into separate containers (one container for each colour you’ll be using)
How to make coloured spagetti:
- Divide the cooked spagetti into separate containers – one container for each colour that you are making.
- Add a few drops of food colouring to each container and mix.
- Add a little cooking oil to the coloured spagetti to stop it from becoming too sticky.
That’s it! You’re done!
As usual, I involved R in the process of making this tub. He really enjoyed selecting the colours, mixing them and then putting it all together into the tub.
Here is the final product. It’s a good thing we were both wearing our sunglasses! Insanely bright…..
I gave R some cooking utensils to explore with because I knew he’d find them fun and I wanted to include some fine motor skills development. He used the tongs to move the spagetti from the tub into the ice cream containers that we had used for mixing in the colours.
There was a hole in the centre of one of the large plastic spoons and R enjoyed threading strands of spagetti through the hole. Great fine motor skills development! I always find it interesting when I look back at photos like this. I notice that R often does these types of fine motor exercises with his left hand but whenever he draws or paints, it is always with his right hand.
Surprisingly, R wasn’t that keen to dig his hands into the spagetti. He usually loves diving right in. I don’t think he was bothered by the slimy spagetti at all, I think he was just really keen to use the “tools” that I’d set out for him.
He did eventually stick his hands in and try it out. Such a fun, messy, sensory experience!
R engaged in imaginative play when he said that this was his restaurant and he was serving prawns and fish. The ice-cream containers became the serving dishes, and he served me bowl after bowl of delicious seafood!
After about 30 minutes of play, R’s grew tired of the spagetti and extended his imaginative scenario of the seafood restaurant into the rest of the garden. He gathered leaves, grass and flower petals as “ingredients” for his dishes. He then returned to the spagetti and served me a spagetti salad. The green spagetti was lettuce, the red was tomato and the orange was cheese!
This play experience:
- developed creativity and indepence. (R chose the activity, decided on the colours, and was actively involved in putting it together)
- developed fine motor skills
- provided an opportunity for imaginative play
- was a great sensory activity
- was FUN!
What’s your favourite sensory play activity?
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My son tends to favor the tools that I put out instead of digging his hands in too! Love the colors of this tub!
Thanks for including the simple instructions to create it.
Hi Gina! They’re funny sometimes aren’t they? I really have to encourage R to get messy sometimes!
Can’t wait to try this! You can’t be the price. Vicky from http://www.messforless.net
Hi Vicky. I hope you have fun with it, and yes, it’s truly the best value tub I’ve ever made.
That looks so fun! We really need to play with some pasta here! It’s been on my to-do list for a while! Must do it before the daycare closes for summer. p.s. love the pics in your blog header!
Thank you! Those header pics are some of my favourites and I think they really capture our tagline of play, learn, create and explore. So, did you end up playing with spagetti before daycare closed for summer?
No wonder you mentioned about needing sunglasses. Those brightly colored spaghetti sure would attract kids to have a little fun!
Hi Audrey! Yes, those colors are crazy aren’t they!
This looks so fun. I definitely want to try this and just hope my son is old enough and doesn’t just try to eat it!
Hi Melanie! Thanks so much for visiting and leaving a comment! Did you try this yet? I hope you and your son have fun with it!
This looks like so much fun!! It has been ages since we have played with spagetti – you have motivated me to organise this for the kids! -Love the colours too! xx
Hi Janice! The colours were VERY bright – especially since we were outside in the sunshine! I hope you and the kids have fun with this!
Those colours are quite magnificent. My little guy liked playing in spaghetti when he was about a year old. Our favourite sensory activities would have to be shaving cream, goop, waterbeads and paint – lots of paint
Kate, I’m so sorry I just realised I never replied to your comment! Yes! Shaving cream is a big favourite with us too. We still haven’t tried waterbeads though. We really need to try that soon.
I have wondered how to do this! Thanks for the clear info and photos. Carolyn
Hi Wilhcarm! My aim in writing this blog is to provide fun ideas that are very simple to put together and to provide clear step by step instructions – so your comment really means a lot to me. Thank you so much!
I did this a few months ago with my boys and they went crazy! Isn’t it so fun and slimy!
You’ve got such great ideas on your site, I “friended” you on FB and I’d love for you to join my Saturday Show & Tell. I know my readers will love your ideas too! Have a great weekend!
Mackenzie
http://www.cheeriosandlattes.com
Hi Mackenzie! I’m very sorry for taking so long to reply – I’m just catching up on comments. I love your site! I found it recently via the Show and Share link up on “I Can Teach My Child”. I’m following you on FB too and I’ll be sure to link up to Saturday Show & Tell very soon when I have some new posts up (I have published much these last couple of weeks). Thanks for inviting me to lnk up.
Just made up a batch for after nap… can’t wait for my very sensory toddler to dig in, and maybe even the baby!
Hi Lis! How did it go? I hope they had lots of fun.
Love, love, love the colours! Cathy ~ The Kids Co-op
Thanks Cathy! The colours are pretty wild aren’t they? I might need to use just a touch less food colouring next time!
We did this today I did four colors My 21 month old had fun scooping, carrying & putting all over the patio. She did try to eat it but didn’t do so. I will keep this as a activity to do again with her.
Thanks for sharing
Thanks Khristie! I’m so happy to hear that your daughter had fun with this.
I would love to try this for my daughter, but am wondering about durability. I like to use bins for a week at a time…what are your thoughts about how long this bin might last? Thanks!
Hi Liz. I’ve never tried storing a spagetti tub before so I asked Crystal at http://www.growingajeweledrose.com about this. (It was Crystal’s site that inspired me to create this tub). She suggested that it might be possible to store this in the fridge for a couple of days (probably not an entire week). After that time, you could use the spagetti for other activities like painting (dip the spagetti in paint and then splat it across the page. Fun!) I’m not sure of the age of your daughter, but if she is still putting things in her mouth you would want to keep a close eye on her and make sure she doesn’t try to eat it, especially after a few days. I hope she loves it and I’d love to hear how it goes for you!
Also, did you find that the food coloring stained hands? Thanks again!
You know, it’s the funniest thing, we use food coloring a lot – like almost every day in water play, tubs like this one, painting activities, cooking etc and it never stains. You’d think it would but it hasn’t for us. Occasionally there’s a bit of color on R’s hands but it just washes right off.
Great! Thanks for your answers…I’m going to give this a try!
that looks so fun! I want to do that with my brother!
fun, fun, fun! We used colored spaghetti as “monster brains” for a halloween scavenger hunt bin – what a hit it was!!! Thanks for sharing this messy play on my FB wall!
Thank you for the opportunity to share it on your wall and thanks for stopping by too! Your halloween scavenger hunt bin sounds brilliant!
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We have had a ball with Mr 16months and Mr 3 today. One quick question, how do I prevent the spaghetti from dying our hands? Although, we are having a blast pretending to have monster hands
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Hi,
I am a teacher-trainer and do workshops for teachers. Do you allow photos, such as the colored spaghetti, to be used by presenters? I always credit sites when I use photos.
Thank you for this post! I am running a preschool sensory class at our homeschool co-op and the kids will go nuts over this. How fun. I’m finding I enjoy making up and playing with these sensory tubs as much as the kids!
I just made this today with my kids (boy, 4 and girl, 2) and they loved it. The colors didn’t mix in uniformly like in your beautiful pictures, but my kids didn’t care and they had a blast, especially my daughter. She’s behind in her motor skills so this was a great way to encourage her to practice fine motor and gain strength. Thank you!