Sensory Spaghetti Play Tub.

Monster eyes, ice and Slime.

How to make a Sensory Spaghetti Play Tub.

Slimy Sensory Spaghetti-

Cook spaghetti, don’t over cook it. Sensory spaghetti play should be firm and slimy not mushy.
Semi-drain it, but leave it wet.
Pour into a large Plastic zip lock bag and mix through a food dye colour of your choice.
Let sit and cool for 15 mins.
Rinse any excess colour off in a strainer
Dash with vegetable oil, add glitter if you want some sparkle.
Repeat with another colour.

Make some Ice monster eyes-

(Do this in advance, preferably the day before making your Sensory Spaghetti Play Tub) – Mix a bowl of water and good dye. fill up an ice cube tray with the coloured water. I got Miss T to help make these and gave her a water droplet so she could suck up the green liquid and squirt it individually into the ice tray. Add google craft eyes floating on top. Freeze on a flat surface in your freezer.

Put the Sensory Spaghetti Play Tub together.

Have your play area set up, a messy mat might be a good idea for toddlers and preschoolers who love to get right in there! Lay out your tub, some child friendly cooking utensils such as plastic tongs, tea strainer clamps, spaghetti ladles and what ever you think your child can handle and learn to use. Provide some plastic cups of bowls for pretend cooking role-play. Add spaghetti first. Sprinkle craft eyes over it. Add your ice cube monster eyes last, they stick to the spaghetti at first which is an interesting concept for children but as soon as their little hands are covered with the slime from the spaghetti and oil they can safely touch the ice cubes. We added some plastic toy insects after a while.

How to encourage Sensory Spaghetti Play.

Give your child the freedom to play independently and explore the ingredients.
Encourage explanatory vocabulary with questions like ; What colour is that? Are you making something? Which utensil works best for the ice? For the spaghetti? What does it feel like? and help them label and explain things they might struggle with.
Make suggestions that encourage fine motor skill development. For instance, Can you pick up that small monster eye with only two fingers, I bet it is slippery? I wonder if those tweezers would be able to catch an ice-eyeball?
Sort spaghetti by colour.
Encourage imagination. ‘Imagine you are a Chef at a Count Dracula’s 100th Birthday Party. What should you make him?’ Soon the spaghetti will symbolise worms. Make a witches Potion or a magical concoction. Or pretend to be a Colourful cook for family members.

Learning Benefits from this Play-Based Parenting Activity.

Sensory Play is a great opportunity for parents to enhance their children’s development of descriptive language by encouraging children to use their vocabulary to explain things, label things and describe them.

Sensory spaghetti Play with utensils, helps to build fine motor skills and coordination. Through squishing, squeezing, grasping, pinching, and manipulating the materials and tools, children are strengthening the muscles in their hand and developing better coordination, which is an essential skill for every day fine motor skills such as pencil grasp and using knife/fork.

Unstructured free independent play encourages exploration and allows children to develop hypothesis, test them, as well as role-playing adult skills (such as cooking), being creative and using their imagination.

Sensory Spaghetti tubs are also great for developing a child’s confidence. It is not “product” dependant and there is no rules or right answer so they develop self esteem through playing independently and learning as they go (with no pressure being put on them).