Rainbow Spaghetti

This Rainbow Spaghetti is super fun for the kids. This is an easy sensory activity and great for early learners. And the good news? Making colored spaghetti isn’t hard to do at all! All you need are a handful of supplies and the kids will be playing in no time at all.

Since we always tell kids that they shouldn’t play with their food – this is the one exception to the rule. They’ll be able to dig their hands into this cooked spaghetti and play with all the strands and various colors.

Will they make a rainbow? Can they braid the colors together? Or do they want to hide a few objects and see if you can find them? No matter what, this is fun for their hands and their fine motor skills, too!

Be certain to check out this Halloween Sensory Bin as well as another super fun activity also!

Don’t you just love there are so many ways to teach the kids the colors of the rainbow? We’ve done this same concept before with colored rice as well as this Super Easy Rainbow Slime Recipe! In our house, we’re all about playing with things with our hands so that we can get the textures and the visuals at the same time!

Why is sensory play important for kids?

Sensory play is extremely important for kids because it teaches them to use all the parts of their brain. They’ll be able to learn more about items and activities when they can feel them, smell them, and create with them rather than just looking at a picture and trying to learn.

How hard is it to make colored spaghetti?

It’s really not hard at all! The longest part of this entire STEM activity is going to be cooking the pasta! That just takes a little bit of patience.

How do you know when spaghetti is done cooking?

There are a few ways to know but you can tell by one super fun way if you’re looking to add a bit of excitement to this fun sensory activity. I got this tip from someone who used to work with pasta a lot and I thought it was super fun!

Take a piece of cooked spaghetti and toss it at the wall. If it sticks, it’s done but if it doesn’t – it just needs a few more minutes in the pot. (The kids will think that this is super silly as well but they’ll love it – even if it means a bit more cleanup for you.)

Check out the simple video below on how to make this rainbow spaghetti. It truly is a super simple activity on how to make colored spaghetti.

Video Tutorial to make Rainbow Spaghetti:

Materials needed to make Colored Spaghetti:

Spaghetti Noodles
Food Coloring
Oil
Ziplock Bags

That’s it! Just make certain that you also have a pot or a pan to cook up the spaghetti as well.

All you have to do is boil the spaghetti and then put different amounts into various ziplock bags. Once you’ve added the noodles, put in 1 tablespoon of oil as well and a bit of food coloring to each bag. Mix up the colors that you’re adding so each bag has a different color in it.

As you can see we did green in one bag and red in the other. You can also work on counting skills by having the kids count the drops of the food coloring that they’re adding into the bag.

Once you’ve added in the food coloring, close the bag and mix it around. This is a great step for the kids to help with, too! Talk about how dark the color is and also talk about what they like about rainbows.

After you’ve mixed the colors, it’s time to empty the bags of colored spaghetti onto a tray in rows as pictured above. This will help it dry out a but so it’s not so messy.

From here, there are a few options for what the kids can do. They can create rainbow spaghetti and leave it like that to dry, or they can use a few utensils and just have fun mixing it all up and getting their hands in it as well.

The options for sensory play are endless! Just know that the spaghetti will end up drying out which just means they’ll have another great texture to feel and explore.