If your kids love Halloween and you want to involve them in some spooky fun, but don't want things to get too scary, try this fun spooky sensory spaghetti invitation to play. They'll have loads of squishy, squelchy, slimy fun exploring this bright {and a little bit freaky} spaghetti. They can search for creepy Halloween favours, squish it, roll it, cut it and even eat it!
In this post I'll show you how to create colourful Halloween sensory spaghetti in just a few minutes using basic items you should already have in your pantry. You can add as many or as few creepy props as you like. Keep in mind your child's interests, age and just how spooky you want your spooky spaghetti to actually be.
I know some people aren't fans of using food for sensory play, however in our house we love to use food in sensory setups, mainly because it's taste safe so I know if the girls mouth anything it's ok {although I do discourage it}. Despite our love for food based sensory play, and the fact that we do some form of sensory play almost every week, this was our first time using spaghetti for sensory play. The main reason for this is that I had to cook it to prepare it, and quite frankly I'd been too lazy to try it before. It's totally worth it though.
Cooked spaghetti is such a fun sensory medium because the texture is almost in between dry and wet. It's not dry and hard like uncooked rice, but it's also not wet and fluid like water. Spaghetti is pretty much made from the same ingredients you can use to make homemade playdough {flour, water and salt}, however it's not the same consistency as dough. Like playdough though it still provides a lot of opportunities for fine motor development by squishing, cutting, pulling, poking and tearing it. It also jiggles and looks like worms, which is always a winner with little kids.
WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO DYE SPAGHETTI
- Spaghetti
- Vinegar
- Food Colouring
- Ziplock bags
- Colander
HOW TO MAKE COLOURED SENSORY SPAGHETTI
1. Cook spaghetti according to packet instructions.
2. When it's cooked immediately rinse it under cold water in a colander.
3. Separate the spaghetti into ziplock bags. {1 bag per colour}
4. In each bag add a few drops of food colouring and a cap full of vinegar.
5. Seal the bag and mix the colour around by lightly scrunching the bag.
6. Once the spaghetti is coloured, rinse it under cold water again to remove any excess food colouring.
We used green and orange food colouring to give our sensory spaghetti a Halloween look. Purple, red or black are also great colours to use for Halloween spaghetti. Unlike other food sensory bases that can be kept for months, sensory spaghetti needs to be used straight away as it's been cooked and will begin to deteriorate, so don't make your batch up until the day you want to play with it. Sensory spaghetti can also be made simply as a special meal treat for the kids {without adding in any figurines, obviously}.
PROPS TO ADD TO YOUR HALLOWEEN SPAGHETTI
You can of course use as many or as little Halloween items in the spaghetti as you want. You could stick to one theme like spiders and use different sizes or colours of spiders. There are so many options when it comes to Halloween knick-knacks and they're all starting to appear in dollar stores, department stores and even in supermarkets now it's September. If you don't want to fight crowds at the shops though you can always buy Halloween mini figurines and party favours online at places like Amazon, Amazon AU, Spotlight or Riot Art & Craft.
Remember to keep in mind your child's age when choosing which items to include, small items can pose a choking risk to children who are still mouthing.
For our sensory spaghetti I used 6 different mini Halloween figurines that we already had in our collection. I used a large spider, mini skeleton, eyeball, mini pumpkin, witches finger and a mini skull. I deliberately chose only one of each and a mixture of different items so she had a chance to investigate items of different size/texture/colour without getting too overwhelmed by the amount of items in the tray. It also meant the sensory spaghetti was still the hero of the invitation to play. I also added in some plastic tweezers for her to use if she wanted to.
MORE HALLOWEEN PLAY IDEAS
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