What’s inside: an Edible Rainbow Spaghetti Sensory Bin perfect for keeping kids of all ages happy while developing fine motor skills – perfect for rainy days or messy playdates.

Edible Rainbow Sensory Bin

I’m a huge fan of taste-safe or edible sensory play ideas because my home daycare is filled with kids of different ages and I want everyone to be able to participate in (and benefit from) sensory play!

Today’s rainbow spaghetti sensory bin is a little bit messy but was such a hit with my kids that I’d feel bad not sharing the fun.

The rainbow spaghetti is slippery, squishy, stretchy, able to be ripped in half or swirled around, scooped or just dug into with bare hands. It’s great for helping kids develop fine motor skills and encouraging them to describe all of the different sensory experiences or observations they notice while playing is wonderful for helping build language skills.

I set out our spaghetti sensory bin with a variety of kid-safe kitchen tools, but if you have playdough tools or bath tubs toys, they would be great, too!

You can keep the rainbow spaghetti in the fridge in between playtimes for a couple of days. If you leave it out, I’d toss the same day.

I hope your kids love this edible rainbow spaghetti sensory bin as much as mine did!

— Jennifer

Rainbow Spaghetti Materials

For your convenience, I’ve provided ad links to supplies used to make this recipe; see our disclosure policy here.

Rainbow Spaghetti
1-4 boxes of dried spaghetti
Large pot
Strainer
Food coloring: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple
6 Gallon zip-lock baggie
Vegetable or canola oil
Wax paper
Cooking sheet

Examples of Kitchen Items to Set Out with the Sensory Bin:

Tongs
Scoops
Tweezers
Sensory bin or water table
Safety scissors

How to Make Rainbow Spaghetti

To Prep: Cook the spaghetti according to the box directions then rinse and drain.

Divide the cooled pasta into separate zip-top bags and toss each with a small amount of oil.
Add food coloring to each bag, seal and mix until the pasta is evenly colored.
Spread the colored pasta in a single layer on a cookie sheet to dry.
Rinse off excess dye, then set up your sensory bin.

Prep Tips

The amount of food coloring will be determined by how saturated you’d like the color of the spaghetti to be.
4 boxes of dried spaghetti would be great for a larger play area like a water table; 1-2 boxes would be good for a smaller sensory bin.
If you are using a larger amount of spaghetti and playing with the cooked pasta inside I’d suggest placing a plastic shower curtain on the floor or letting your little ones play in an area that can be cleaned easily like a kitchen floor.
This is a great OUTDOOR activity and make sure that the kids are wearing MESSY CLOTHES!

More Edible Sensory Fun

Rainbow Spaghetti Recipe (Printable Recipe Card)

If you tried this recipe and loved it too, please rate it! We’d also love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Yield: 1 Sensory Bin

Rainbow Spaghetti Sensory Bin

Prep Time 5 minutes

Active Time 20 minutes

Additional Time 5 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Difficulty Easy

Estimated Cost $3

Materials

1-4 boxes of dried spaghetti
Large pot
Strainer
Food coloring: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple
6 Gallon zip-lock baggie
Vegetable or canola oil
Wax paper
Cooking sheet

Tools

Tongs
Scoops
Tweezers
Sensory bin or water table
Safety scissors

Instructions

Cook the amount of pasta you would like for your sensory bin or water table.
Once the pasta is cooked drain and rinse it well with cold water.
Once it is cool enough to handle separate it into 6 zip-lock baggies.
Add a small amount of oil per bag. Seal and carefully mix to get the oil to cover all the
pasta. (this helps the pasta not to stick)
Reopen and add food coloring. Reseal and carefully mix to get the food coloring all over
the pasta.
Repeat steps 4 and 5 until all the pasta is colored.
Carefully pour the colored pasta onto the wax paper-covered cooking sheet. If possible
get the pasta into a single layer.
Let the pasta soak up the food coloring for at least one hour. Rinse pasta with cold
water to remove any food coloring that did not absorb into the spaghetti.
Enjoy!
Discard pasta after it’s been played with.