Pasta…It’s to "dye" for!

Materials:

fun-shaped pasta

rubbing alcohol

food coloring

-Pour a few tablespoons of rubbing alcohol into the bag (I didn't measure...neither should you!)

-Place a few drops of food coloring into the bag.

-Close bag and Shake! (If you have a zipper bag your little helper could do this part! My helper was sleeping and I only had really, really, really cheap bags or my special freezer bags to choose from...yes, the bags were so thin I needed to double bag my pasta!)

-If your little one becomes impatient, place it outside to speed up the drying time....

• Sorting by colors
• Sorting shapes of pasta (bowties, corkscrews, penne, etc.)
• Counting Pasta
• Making Patterns
• Pasta Art
• "Which one doesn't belong?" (3 of the same, 1 different)

Just a side note: Jonah (2 years old) immediately started sorting without much guidance from Mommy! He sorted by colors (I only gave him 2 colors to start with) and he sorted by shape (I gave him all the same color and he sorted "butterflies" and "horns"...he even named the pasta!)
I used dyed pasta in my kindergarten class all the time for cheap manipulatives for math skills/games. The possibilities are endless!
Now go dye pasta, your kids will think you're even more awesome than you already are...