Noodle Nonsense!

     We had SO much fun in class today painting with noodles for our letter n activity. After introducing the letter, we formed letter N with our noodles and then we used them to paint. The kids had a blast. They were totally taken aback when  I pulled out a box of noodles and started throwing them around. They thought it was hilarious! I made up a little poem and dance : "N is for noodle, /n/n/n/, noodles in my hair, noodles in my chair, noodles here, noodles there, noodles noodles everywhere!!!" (Yes, I actually put a a handful of cooked spaghetti noodles into my hair! LEARNING was happening y'all.)  They were singing the song all morning, which was great because we are also working on rhyming words.

We were able to accomplish SO much with this activity:
1. Real, authentic art - not a cutesy Kindergarten craft. You can even discuss Jackson Pollock and show students some of his artwork. This gives them something to strive towards and introduces them to a modern artist!
2. Great sensory activity!You can even extend this with a five senses lesson!
3. Great lesson on mixing colors. I gave each student two primary colors and let them make this discovery on their own. Not even a minute had passed before all of my students were in a color mixing discussion. "Red and blue make purple! Did your colors make something?" "Red and yellow make orange!"
4. N is for noodles and N is for nouns! Quickly talk about other nouns that can be used for the noodles. Pasta, spaghetti, and food are the nouns my students came up with!

Of course, by the end of this activity my students had messy, messy hands and messy, messy papers! But it was OK! We wiped our hands with wet ones and came to the sink one at a time to finish cleaning up! Everyone survived, although one of my boys did request a pair of gloves!

You can always make this a letter P activity for pasta painting, I just felt that noodle was a more familiar word for PK/K kids. Of course, if you aren't doing letter sound this is a perfect activity to accompany two of my favorite books: Strega Nona and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs!