Rockin' the Noodle Necklace

I had to do an activity/lesson plan for one of my college courses.

Actually I have to do 6, two that I had present in class (already done, whew!)

and 4 that I have to do at my field placement (pre k class).

So I chose to start with teaching pre k math.

by teaching patterns.

I chose the rainbow because it's easy to remember the colors of the rainbow

and they are always in the same color pattern.

as part of my lesson, we made some pretty awesome macaroni necklaces using colored rigatoni

to make these necklaces all you need is the pasta, rubbing alcohol, food coloring and large ziploc bags.

you can use any pasta you want, i chose rigatoni because it's chunky and therefore easier for those little fingers to pick up and the hole is bigger so they can get the yarn in there easily as well.

but these necklaces would look fabulous with several different types of pasta

just sayin', cause you know Mother's Day is around the corner

and what mom or grandmother doesn't appreciate those macaroni necklaces :)

start by placing the pasta in large ziploc bags.

add 1/4 cup rubbing alcohol

food coloring

(the more you add the brighter the color gets)

you can make just about any color, but since we were doing rainbows

I went with red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.

rub and shake the bag until you get all the pasta mixed up and then let it soak for a few hours

(again, the longer it soaks, the brighter and darker the noodles)

spread and layer lots of newspaper on the table, i mean lots and lots

because you do not want to ruin your table with food dye.

and then lay the pasta on the paper to dry (preferably overnight)

you could technically use this noodle dyeing idea for a science lesson as well.

after the noodles dry....the fun begins

all you need is the noodles and some yarn

you can even let the kids play with what's leftover

Nathan and I made the noodles the night before I needed them

and he was so anxious to make a necklace of his own.  he even

made one for his teacher.

heck, Nicholas even made one.

rock those noodles!!