Monday, November 11, 2013

Stop Abusing Alcohol! (a tutorial)

I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin' with a helpful hint.  
So, I frequently hear (and read) about teachers painstakingly dyeing and drying macaroni with food coloring and alcohol.  I hear about pasta pieces sprawled out all over their kitchen to dry.  I hear about pasta sticking together. I hear about stained fingers. This is going to be not only a time saving hint, but a headache avoiding hint as well.  It is so unbelievably simple, I couldn't believe it worked until I tried it.  

Materials:  4 oz. (1/4 of the box) of salad macaroni, a squirt of food coloring, any paper or plastic bag




Simply put the macaroni in a bag, add just food coloring (I do a quick squirt across the top) and shake immediately.  The macaroni absorbs the color and dries almost instantaneously.

You can use the other 3/4 box for 3 other colors.  The box makes enough for 25 necklaces, which we will string as we learn about Native Americans.  I encourage patterns and have my kinders name their patterns with a-d. Some years I even have my kinders help shake.

Now, stop abusing alcohol and have fun shaking!

3 comments:

  1. I've never had to dye beads, but now that my own kids are getting older, I'll have to try it!

    Thanks for linking up with Blog Hoppin'!

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  2. WOW, we make pattern necklaces every year and I couldn't deal with the whole dying process so we colored ours with markers......DOUBLE MESS! I can't wait to try out this idea. Thanks so much for sharing!

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