Spaghetti!

This afternoon after school my boys were a bit tired and a bit agitated, they gravitated towards each other upsetting the other, feeling a little stressed by their behaviour i decided on this sensory activity. 

I thought it might calm them and distract them from their boredom. 

I was right.

The spaghetti was cool and slimy to touch, the colours were lovely to look at and i think it helped relieve some of that tension they had pent up and made them feel relaxed as the sat for ages squishing it between their little fingers like one of those squishy stress relievers. Very tactile activity.

It was easy to make too, the most time consuming part was the cooking of the pasta itself but once done it was pretty straightforward and quick to put together.

Cleaning up didn't take too long either, after brushing off excess pasta form their clothes i put what was left in the tub in the compost bin and swept the rest which had dried hard again in the sun 

To make:

1. I used 2 packets of spaghetti pasta, cook it until soft then drain and run under cool water. Pasta swells up when you cook so not to worry if it doesn't look like enough.

2. I divided up the pasta once cool into bowls then added a bit of oil to each bowl along with food colouring, you could use a spoon to mix but i find using your hand tends to be more helpful (gloves on!) to work the colour in.

3. Add to a container or a tray and let them go!

Its great fun!