I LOVE this sensory bin!
It’s so beautiful! 😀
Dyeing pasta is an easy way to add some math (and fun!) to any noodle sensory bin, but for St. Patrick’s day what better way to celebrate than to use rainbow-colored AND rainbow shaped noodles??? 😀
I chose elbow pasta because it looks like little rainbows, and I included large and small elbow pastas to add size variations. Pour the pasta into a ziplock bag and add a few drops of food coloring with a little water just to get enough to coat the pasta.
Some people swear by using another ingredient like hand sanitizer or rubbing alcohol to make the color spread evenly, but since sensory stuff always ends up in someone’s mouth no matter how hard you try, I try to avoid chemical stuff if possible. I found with this, a little water worked perfectly well.
Let it dry out – I started this in the morning, and it was fully dry by afternoon.
Since the base ingredient of this sensory bin isn’t small like rice but is bigger, chunkier, and multicolored – I didn’t want to add items that were smaller or too multicolored so it wouldn’t be overstimulating.
I added some foam stars, large shamrocks and coins, and pots from the dollar tree.
I think the result is so beautiful!
There are many shapes and colors to identify, sort and compare for developing math skills…
…the pots allow for scooping and pouring…
…pinching, fitting objects inside, and reaching to pull objects out fine motor skills as well as filling and dumping, empty and full math concepts…
…and if you want to increase their color sorting and classifying practice, you can add sorting bowls!
While they separate by color it gives a great opportunity to practice language and other math classifiers!
Have them name the colors and match them…
…talk about the sizes and shapes…
… and count and use comparison words like “there are MORE green pieces than yellow pieces!”
Also using simple counting and number words are easy ways to introduce more complicated math concepts like addition, subtraction, division, fractions etc. “Look! There are six colors of the rainbow! That means each color is one-sixth of the rainbow! If I take away one color, now there are only 5! If I take away three colors, that leaves three colors! That’s the same as half of the rainbow!”
If you don’t have bowls or containers of every color, you can use color labels, paint egg cartons, paint or color styrofoam cups, put down colored construction paper and place each item on their matching color etc.
There are many ways to do it!
I always take time to stand in front of supply closets and daydream about everyday objects and how they could be used creatively 🙂
Have fun!
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