Spaghetti Painting is a fun, messy arts and craft activity perfect for school age children. You may have done basic spaghetti painting with young children before, but this activity takes the project to the next level. Create noodle brushes of different sizes and textures, then ask kids to create a unique piece of art.
Spaghetti Painting Supplies
- A few boxes of Spaghetti noodles
- Rubber bands
- string
- Acrylic Paints
- Paper or Canvas
Preparation
Split noodles into 3-6 bundles of noodles per box. Carefully wrap a rubber band around one end of each bundle. These bundles will be used as spaghetti paint brushes, so you may want to create different size bundles to make different size brushes.
How to Make the Brushes
Depending on the age of the children you are working with, you may want to do this before the spaghetti painting activity. If you are working with older children you may want to involve them in this step of the project.
To make the spaghetti brushes get out a large pot, fill it half way with water. Then wrap a string around the rubber banded area of each spaghetti brush. Tie the ends of the string to the handles of the pot so that the noodles are inside of the pot. Bring the water to a boil. The bottom ends of the spaghetti should be submerged in the water, while the top half is not. You will want to remove the noodle brushes at different points. This will give you a variety of brush textures.
I took them out at
- 3 minutes
- 5 minutes
- 7 minutes
Spaghetti Painting
Ask the kids to touch the noodles that were in the water for 3 minutes, and the noodles that were in the water for 10 minutes. Ask them what they notice about the different noodle brushes. Explain to the kids that the longer the noodle stays in the water the softer they get.
Set out some paint, smocks, paper or canvas and let the kids go to town. Have them experiment with different brush sizes and textures to create a unique piece of art.
