How We Color Pasta

When it comes to sensory bins, I generally just dump different materials into the container and call it a day. With the holidays approaching, I decided to get a little more festive by coloring dry pasta red and green. It did take a few combinations in order to get the set up just right, so I thought I would share the combination that worked the best for us.

Step One:

Gather supplies: Pasta (different shapes and sizes), rubbing alcohol, gallon size plastic bags, and food coloring.

Step Two:

Combine 16 oz dry pasta and 1 tsp rubbing alcohol into a ziplock bag. Shake it up to spread the rubbing alcohol evenly on the pasta.

Step Three:

Add food coloring of your choice. I added 50 drops of food coloring to 16 oz of dry pasta.

Step Four:

Spread the pasta out on a pan to dry. I let the pasta sit for 24 hours before adding to the bin.

Step Five:

Add to your sensory bin of choice.

For this sensory bin I added string to give my daughter the opportunity to start stringing the pasta. I tied a piece of pasta to the end so the other pieces wouldn’t slide off and applied scotch tape to the other end so the string wasn’t flimsy. After a few examples of pushing the string through and then pulling out the other end, my daughter was able to make a necklace completely on her own. I did remind her to “pinch and pull” when the string was coming out the other end of the pasta.