Activity ideas

What you’ll need to get started:

• Spaghetti pasta
• A variety of different pasta tubes and shapes that have a hole in like penne, macaroni, rigatoni, cannelloni, wheel-shaped (rotelle), or character shapes
• Different colours of food colouring (optional if colouring pasta)
• Vinegar (optional if colouring the pasta)
• Playdough
• Pipe cleaners, straws or spaghetti (wool, string, laces for older children)
• Resealable freezer bags or container with a sealable lid

Activities for 12 months – 2 years:

1. Shape the playdough into balls on a tray or table top, and squash them slightly.
2. Place the spaghetti pasta in the dough, or you could use a straw, and make sure it is secure. Then give your child the pasta shapes and get them threading!
3. It may be best to start off using larger tubes of pasta with younger children then as they get used to doing it then maybe move onto the smaller pieces of pasta.
4. Keep the pasta in an air tight tub and use again and again!

Activities for 2 – 5 years:

• As your child grows you could progress and use a length of wool (or ribbon, string or a shoelace) to make pasta necklaces or bracelets! Its best to wrap some sticky tape around the end of the wool as this will make the threading much easier, as the wool will easily pass through the holes in the pasta shapes.

How to make it:

1. Wash the fruit and vegetables you will be using and dry them with a tea towel.
2. Using the chopping board, cut your fruit and vegetables in half with a knife. This is something you can get your child to help you with – check out our film on healthy snack ideas which shows different safe cutting techniques.
3. Dab the cut side with some kitchen roll or newspaper to soak up the moisture, as this will help the paint stick better.
4. Pour the paint you are using into a shallow container, such as a plate or dish. If you are using more than one colour, then add to multiple plates with the different colours.
5. You can either apply the paint using a sponge or paintbrush, or dip the fruit straight into the paint. Make sure that the piece is covered evenly with a thin coat of paint.
6. Press the fruit/ vegetable firmly to the paper, ink side down and remove – that’s your first print done!
7. Now you could explore printing with different fruit and vegetables, cut in different ways to make great pictures!

• Aim for firm fruits as these make a more visible print
• Don’t apply too much paint as it could make the prints outline blurry
• Make patterns and pictures using different vegetables together. For example, cut cauliflower into individual florets and use them to make a picture of a big tree!
• Please don’t eat the fruit and vegetables after you have used them with the paint as this could make you unwell.
• Don’t forget to let your painting dry for a few hours once you have finished.

Your toddlers will love playing with uncooked rice, it is a versatile ingredient you can use in lots of different ways – time and time again. You can use the rice as it is, or you can colour it different colours of the rainbow, or even add different scents – which will help develop your child’s imagination and sensory experience even further!

How to dye your rice

1. Divide the rice between the sealable bags
2. Add a few drops of each colour you are using into each bag of rice.
3. Seal the bag and shake to distribute the colour. This is something your child will enjoy doing!
4. You can add a spoonful of vinegar, as this can help the colour last longer.
5. Spread the rice out on a tray to dry – it should be dry within a few hours.
6. Once the rice is dry, pour into a large tub/ container or a shallow dish and try these different activities! If you are using a smaller tub then it may be best to use a sheet or play mat underneath to help contain the rice!

Activities for 12 months – 2 years

• If you are using different colours you could arrange it in a pattern or mix the colours together.
• Scoop and pour the rice using different utensils such as smaller bowls, funnels, spoons, tubes, or ice cube trays to scoop. Your child will love seeing the rice ‘move’ and flow.
• Encourage your child to stick their hands into the rice to feel the different shapes and textures of the rice.
• Hide puzzle or alphabet pieces in the rice for your child to find, this will make putting the puzzle together more fun.
• Have a rice-tea party! – add the rice to a toy teapot and pour into cups as part of a tea party with other toys.
• Add toy animals, dinosaurs or any other creatures to the rice – either hide for your child to search through the rice and find or just to play on.
• Use your children’s mini diggers or trucks to dig the rice up and pretend it’s a building site.
• The rice can also be kept in the bags for your child to play – they will love being able to feel the rice through the bag.
• You could also add a scent to the rice. A lemon or orange squeezed in with the rice as well as the food colouring, or a natural essence or even herbs could be used.

Activities for 2 years – 5 years

• Craft with your rainbow rice – grab some plain and coloured card or paper and some glue – use these to make colourful rainbows with each colour rice, or make rice monsters or creatures.

Hints and Tips

• Why not use dry pasta to play with instead? This can be a good way to start introducing your child to different textures.
• Use different shaped pasta such as penne (tubes), fusilli (spirals), conchiglie (shells), farfalle (bows) add it to a medium/ large sized container.
• To make things a bit more challenging, you could hide small objects in the pasta for your little one to find, like small toys or puzzles.
• Once your child has finished playing with the pasta it can be stored in a container to use again.
• When your child is comfortable with dry textures, like pasta and rice, they can start moving on to wetter textures – such as cooked spaghetti, wet oats.
• Some pastas come in different colours which you could also try, or see our pasta threading film on how to colour pasta different colours!

Playing with oats can be carried out with children from 6 months onwards as both a sensory and developmental activity. 

Extras

• Porridge Oats
• Tray or shallow container

How to play with oats

1. Pour the bag of porridge oats into a tray and let your little one get stuck in. Give them time to explore the texture of the dry oats with their hands.
2. For further fun exploration, offer them a range of objects that encourages scooping, pouring, digging etc. You could even put your little one’s favourite toys in there. Such as a digger or car set, a tea set, mega blocks etc.
3. You could also introduce your little one to ‘wet play’ by adding a little water to the oats. Scoop some oats from your tray into a separate bowl and gradually add some water with a spoon or jug.
4. Let them play and explore each level of texture, from dry to tacky and wet. If you have any moulds or cookie cutters, your little one could have fun making different shapes when the oats are wet and gooey.

Growing from seed is a great way to teach your child about where food comes from. The process of planting a seed in soil, taking care of it whilst it grows into something you can eat is magical for young children to be a part of. It is important that you start with seeds that grow quite fast – so it keeps their interest and gives them a positive experience of gardening. A child is also more likely to try new food they have grown themselves. You don’t need access to a garden to grow – all you need is compost / soil, something to grow it in and a watering can!

How to make

1. Decorate the empty egg shell, yogurt pot or paper cup using the felt-tip pens or paint and paint brushes. You and your child could draw funny faces so when the cress grows it’ll look like green hair
2. Wet some kitchen roll and place it at the bottom of the egg shell, yogurt pot or paper cup
3. Then wet some cotton wool and place this on top of the kitchen roll. Leave a small gap (about 2 – 3cm) between the cotton wool and the top of the eggshell, yogurt or paper cup
4. Sprinkle a teaspoon of the cress seeds evenly onto the wet cotton wool. Press them down gently with your finger tips
5. Put in a warm place that gets plenty of sunlight, like a windowsill, to grow
6. Add a little water every day to make sure the cotton wool remains moist. The cress should grow in 7 – 10 days
7. When the cress has grown about 10 cm, cut it with a pair of scissors and add to a sandwich or the quesadilla recipe.

Hints and tips

• Teach not to over water
• Use unusual containers like old boots (which you can paint) tea pots, old pans, old tyre , teacups

Before you start:

• Cook and cool spaghetti
• Collect an assortment of small toys
• If using pebbles, number them 1-10

How to make it:

1. Place approximately 8 drops of each colour food dye into separate bowls and add even portions of cooked and cooled spaghetti into the bowls.
2. Tip your spaghetti onto a surface to dry.
3. Once dry tip into the bucket or container and add the pebbles or toys.

Hints and tips

• Try taste testing some of the cooked and coloured pieces of spaghetti – this will help to introduce kids to new textures.
• Get the kids involved by asking them to mix the food colouring with the cooled spaghetti and collect small toys for them to find in their spaghetti worms.
• If the spaghetti becomes too dry and sticky, have some water handy to squirt onto the pasta to help keep it smooth and slippery to handle.
• Make sure the pebbles or toys are too big to swallow.
• You can practice your counting and naming skills by counting all the toys/pebbles you’ve found in total and using descriptive words for each toy.

How to make it:

1. Get your child to help you measure out your dry ingredients and pour them into your saucepan
2. Add 1 tablespoon of oil to the dry ingredients
3. In separate dishes, combine the food colouring to water, one for each colour you wish to use. Add your coloured water to your saucepan of dry ingredients.
4. Allow your child to help with whisking your ingredients before heating to remove any lumps, or blend all the ingredients.
5. Cook over medium heat constantly stirring until it becomes a thick blob.
6. Turn the play dough out onto a clean surface and knead into a smooth blob.

What the children can do (with adult help)

• Measure out dry ingredients
• Measure, pour and mix food colouring and water
• Combine and mix dry and wet ingredients
• Stir mixture
• Knead dough once cooled

Skills

• Measuring, pouring, whisking, kneading

Hints and Tips

• You can always use cold water instead of cooking on the stove. Just stir until it forms a smooth ball of play dough.
• This dough will last for a few weeks in an air tight container or zip-lock bag.
• Use some pipe cleaners/Straws and some googley eyes, you could turn your dough balls into dough monsters.
• You could also make some new dough balls with natural scents, colouring and added textures, for example: add a couple of teaspoons of freshly grated zest or mash up berries (fresh or defrosted from frozen) to the dough in the final stages. You could even add some herbs and spices or edible essences such as vanilla or mint.