Make your own Rainbow Macaroni

What you need: 2 Tbs of alcohol, 3 drops food coloring, 1 cup elbow or penne macaroni

Pour 2 Tbs of alcohol and 3 drops of food coloring in bowl and stir

Put 1 cup macaroni in a bag and add color mixture

Mix by squishing around for 2 minutes

 

Pour out noodles on a papertowel covered baking sheet and let dry for 5-10 minutes. Follow these steps with different colors for a Rainbow of Macaroni.

Busy Bag Ideas - Macaroni Art

We are going to do a Rainbow Theme next week, so I thought I would make some Rainbow Macaroni to play with. Today he was just threading it on a ribbon. I also have pipe cleaners and yarn to thread on.
Variations: Say a color and have your preschooler thread it
                   Preschooler makes his own pattern
                   Makes a Great Mother's Day present
                  
Next week, we will glue the Macaroni on Pictures or ABC's for rainbow week.

Busy Time: 10-15 minutes

Popsicle Sticks

My children may not have created images like this with popsicle sticks, but give them enough time and they will come up with some real ingenious ideas. Last night Timmy (9) called me while I was on my way to the store and asked if we still had popsicle sticks and a glue gun. I led him to 3 places they should've been, if we had any, but they weren't there. So, I bought him some. He was going to build a boat that would float. He cut a plastic bottle in half, from the re-use/recycle bin, put some pennies in the bottom for the ballast and started hot gluing popsicle sticks together to finish his boat. He found skewers for his mast and grey tape for extra support and then one final test to see if it floated and It Did! He was so proud of his creation. Then everyone wanted to build something.

Preschooler Variation:

• I bought some wooden skill sticks that have little notches in them and fit together for the preschooler. They are like flat lincoln logs. If all you had was regular popsicle sticks I would opt for taping them together instead of the hot glue gun. 
• They can make letters: A, E, F, H, I, K, L, M, N, T, V, W, X, Y & Z.
• Glue the popsicle sticks side-by-side and let them paint pictures on them. You can have a homemade trivet from your preschooler

Start saving your popsicle sticks and get building!