Guest Posted June 18, 2005 Share Posted June 18, 2005 Hi folks! I'm wanting to do some pasta/rice collage with my little darlings but would like to make it more interesting by dying the pasta and rice. Someone once told me how to do this, but having never gone through the process, my brain has filed the info in the archives - never to be seen again. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 18, 2005 Share Posted June 18, 2005 Hello CG I have only dyed cooked pasta, I put in food colouring while the pasta is boiling then put it in the water tray. Sorry I can't help much but wanted to post because I had a parent complain that there are starving families in the world and we are using food to play with. Arghhhhh! (other parents complain that their child takes home too much stickings and paintings- ever feel like you can't win?!) Hope other members are more helpful x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 18, 2005 Share Posted June 18, 2005 I dye pasta for collage etc by adding food colouring to the pan of boiling water then adding the dried pasta shapes. Let them boil for a short time (only about a minute really) and then pour into a collander to drain. Spread the pasta shapes onto a tea towel or newspaper to dry out over night. you need to spread them out so that they aren't all ontop of each other. You should have beautiful coloured pasta shapes by tomorrow. Red tends to work best, but I've done all coloures. I can manage to get orange, purple and brown by mixing the colouring, but experiment with this first! happy cooking!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 18, 2005 Share Posted June 18, 2005 "colours" oops! sorry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magenta Posted June 18, 2005 Share Posted June 18, 2005 Coloured rice only needs a very small amount of food colouring - add to the dry rice and stir. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 18, 2005 Share Posted June 18, 2005 Thanks guys. I'll give it a go this week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 19, 2005 Share Posted June 19, 2005 You can also dye dried Pasta by putting it in plastic tub, eg. ice cream container, and putting in a couple of teaspoons of food colouring and then mixing for few minutes. Leave to dry. I usually do this in large quantities and a variety of colours at beginning of term. Also to rice. Children really like rainbow coloured rice as alternative to sand for pouring and using with spoons and pots. So quick and easy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 19, 2005 Share Posted June 19, 2005 Jingo, I agree, my class LOVE having rainbow coloured dried rice. They also enjoy being involved with making the rice change colour - it evokes some really interesting language and questions! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 19, 2005 Share Posted June 19, 2005 The rainbow rice is a fantastic idea - I'd never thought of that (I've obviously not been in nursery long enough for that deep level thought-process). thankyou - that's now become a new scribble on this week's plans: involve children with dying rice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 20, 2005 Share Posted June 20, 2005 Great ideas, I visited some of my new intake at nursery the other day and was fascinated to see photos of the sand tray which had been used for a huge variety of different materials over the year. compost, pasta, rice etc. We're doing the seaside at the moment, on my return to school I filled a large deep art tray with pasta and we used it to make the music of the sea along with a variety of percussion instruments. The children have now recorded their music onto cassette and were tremendously enthusiastic about being an orchestra. I know it's not coloured pasta, but maybe I'll make mine blue tomorrow! Thought others might like the music idea. Angela Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 20, 2005 Share Posted June 20, 2005 Hi I have also had a problem with a parent who objected to us using food stuff in art work, so we now ask for donations of 'out of date' dried goods to use. We find that parents who work in shops are a good source, as are family and friends! We do still sometimes have to resort to buying in date goods if we want a particular shape or size of pasta, but we do pretty well other than that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan Posted June 20, 2005 Share Posted June 20, 2005 Hi Jingo and welcome! I've used spray paint to make gold and silver pasta treasure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 20, 2005 Share Posted June 20, 2005 Yeah, I've done the whole treasure thing - it's like real gold! Aren't parents a pain! Having just looked at the whole nursery induction discussion (parents want hard proof that their children have been doing (making) something at nursery) it seems like you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't. We do only buy the cheap 'value' stuff, but I guess that isn't then point... I'm going shopping for pasta and rice tomorrow - apologies to all the starving people. (This smilie is me in disguise so as to avoid confrontation by angry people wanting to know what my intentions are for my pasta.) Is it just me, or is it really difficult to think up new and interesting ideas? Hoping to be inspired tomorrow on a visit to Scrapstore. Yippee! Is there no hope for me? I'm excited about junk! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gezabel Posted June 20, 2005 Share Posted June 20, 2005 I would not go so far as to say I 'object' to using food stuffs but it is something we choose not to do in our pre-school. We do use out of date items in such as lentils and pasta shapes in their pre-cooked form but that's about it. Ready to be shot down in flames but genuinely interested to know am I alone in this?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubblejack Posted June 21, 2005 Share Posted June 21, 2005 No you are not alone on this. We use dried foods sometimes and I make dough and gloop using flour but would avoid using foods in their true form. I would feel uncomfortable about using jelly or cooked pasta because at lunch club and snack-time I am trying to encourage children to eat properly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gezabel Posted June 21, 2005 Share Posted June 21, 2005 Phew! nice to know I am not alone! I hadn't thought of the 'straving people' aspect but I do think it sends mixed messages to the children. One minute they are grabbing handfuls of cooked spaghetti, dipping it in purple paint and making patterns. The next minute they are expected to sit at the table, not play with food and eat nicely Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 21, 2005 Share Posted June 21, 2005 I am always very concious when we used food stuffs for craft etc-both because of wasting it and not encouraging children to mess with their food at the appropriate times. I try to avoid it as much as possible and, like bubblejack, try to only use things such as dried pasta, lentils etc. We have used fruit for observational paintings but I eat that at the end of the session!! Linda Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 21, 2005 Share Posted June 21, 2005 I think this quote's from 'Friends': Can Open Worms Everywhere! Who'd have thought it? Apologies to anyone I am offending in the use of food for 'unfoodly' activities. (Although, the reality is, in my short time in nursery, I haven't actually used any food in this manner yet.) I'd be glad to hear of other 'malleable' suggestions - where do we go from here? Sand (both wet and dry), compost, small stones/pebbles?... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 21, 2005 Share Posted June 21, 2005 I agree with sentiments about using food and only use out of date stuff. I now have an issue about wasting water. I had what I thought was a really good idea to encourage independence - use a water butt so children could get water themselves in the outside area BUT of course they leave the tap on, fill containers with water and tip them all over the play ground and generally just waste it. So am now wondering whether to fix the butt up to the guttering so we only use rain water but would this then be a health and safety issue! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 21, 2005 Share Posted June 21, 2005 When I arrived at nursery, there was already a water butt attached to the guttering - and I have to confess I hadn't considered H&S. My children sometimes leave the tap on, but they are pretty good, as weather like this demos that 'once it's gone, it's gone' (until the next downpoor), which is a good thing to learn. Mine too do like to tip it everywhere, despite my encouraging them to water our potato plants. But hey! That's how they learn: one of them was pooring from a watering can without a rose, onto our play surface, and made a 'snail trail' then was slightly bemused by the fact that it had disappeared (it was a very hot and sunny day), and, as luck would have it, our topic is weather, so that was fortuitous. Is it me, or are we digressing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue R Posted June 22, 2005 Share Posted June 22, 2005 Hi Jingo!! Sue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 6, 2005 Share Posted July 6, 2005 No you are not alone on this. We use dried foods sometimes and I make dough and gloop using flour but would avoid using foods in their true form. I would feel uncomfortable about using jelly or cooked pasta because at lunch club and snack-time I am trying to encourage children to eat properly. 33965[/snapback] All this talk about using pasta,jelly etc has made me think about all those poor children who never have a meal so from now on if I ever work in a preschool etc I will use out of date food for art etc!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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