Something about Kool-Aid just screams summer to me and with all the rain we’ve been having lately I need to be reminded that summer will soon be here. I don’t think I have actually had Kool-Aid since I was about 10 and I am looking forward to hot summer days when I can enjoy a glass with baby Z in the yard. Sadly he is still too young for such a sugary drink but he is the perfect age for the Kool-Aid coloured pasta sensory bin that we did today. I saw this post for Kool-Aid coloured dry pasta but I knew baby Z would try and eat anything placed in front of him and dry pasta seems like a great choking hazard. Cooked pasta on the other hand is one of Baby Z’s favorite foods so I knew it would be perfect for him. I use a very small pasta called “ditali” to add to Baby Z’s food as it is easy for him to chew and swallow which is also what I used for this activity.
Ingredients
- Ditali Pasta (or something similar that is small enough for babies to eat)
- Kool-Aid (I used green, red and purple but purple turned more black than anything)
- Plastic Bags for mixing
- 1/2 c water per colour
Directions
- Cook pasta as per directions on the box, then cook for additional 15 minutes and allow it to become very soft (overcooked)
- Strain pasta and insert desired amount in a plastic bag
- Pour 1 package of Kool-Aid in plastic bag and add 1/2 cup of water
- Seal bag and allow to sit for 30 minutes.
- Remove from plastic bag, strain and arrange in bin however you want
As soon as I set the bin in front of Baby Z he reached in and touched each of the three colours and mixed them around a bit. I used this opportunity to talk to him about the colours he was touching. To my surprise he didn’t try and eat the pasta for quite a while and was much more interested in exploring the texture. He eventually decided he wanted to crawl into the bin and sit right in the pasta and then reach down and eat the pieces he could see under him bum – so cute. I really loved this activity as it worked on three different levels:
- sensory
- exploring colours
- fine motor skills (to pick up the individual pieces of pasta)
Clean up was simple especially since any pieces that ended up outside the bin were quickly eaten by the dog!! Baby Z just needed a quick wash down in the sink and there was absolutely no staining from the Kool-Aid (big bonus in my opinion). When the boy is happy, momma is happy!
Meg&Z 
Brilliant. It would be fun to do a rainbow of pasta for older kids to learn the colors of the rainbow.
That would be a great idea!!
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