Exploring Messy Play – Pasta

Messy Play experts, Mess Around, have some fantastic tips for exploring a messy play staple – pasta! Head to the kitchen cupboards, grab your Tidy tot coverall bib and let’s get messy

Coloured Spaghetti

Spaghetti is a feature at just about all our messy play events. It is a huge hit with children (and adults). To colour your spaghetti, simply cook as normal. Once cooked, add a tiny bit of oil and food colouring (we use powdered food colouring) to get the perfect shade.

If your little one has a wheat allergy, gluten-free spaghetti works just as well!

Cooked spaghetti is a fantastic texture for little hands to squish with the bonus of being taste safe too and you can get really creative with your messy designs. The Tidy Tot Long Length Coverall Bib is great for older ones exploring messy play – it gives full protection all the way around and is water-resistant.

Dried Pasta Spikes

You can save yourself a little time and use uncooked pasta shapes too. Add a little hand sanitiser to dried pasta and sprinkle on food colouring to get the perfect colour. Add the pasta to bottles to make your own shakers, or how about adding dinosaurs like we have to make a ‘dinosaur spikes’ activity?

Dried pasta makes a great sensory activity. It’s easy to scoop into bowls and pour to make a great sound!

Hedgehog Playdough

We love this really creative use of dried spaghetti. Little ones can use their hands to mould the playdough to their perfect hedgehog shape and accessorise with spaghetti spikes. It is a great activity for helping hand and eye coordination along.

Want to give messy play a go? Try one of Mess Around’s sessions