Dried Pasta

Uses: Fun and educational!
Materials:

• various shapes, colors, or sizes of died pasta. (To make it more challenging, use all three aspects at the same time!)
• cups or bowls

Procedure:

• Label the bowls (or cups) by gluing a single piece of each kinds of dried pasta to its own bowl (or cup).
• Lay all of the dried pasta out on a table.
• Take turns with your child separating the dried pasta into bowls of the same kind of pasta.
• Be sure to talk about why each piece of dried pasta goes in its place (ex. Because it is the same shape, size, or color as the other pieces.)
• Tip: To make it challenging for an older or more advanced child, do not label the bowls. Have the child decide how the dried pasta should be sorted and why.

Uses: This is a fun art project for young children that can actually be worn!
Materials:

• string, yarn, fishing wire, earring hooks, unfinished hair clips (the hooks and clips can be bought at any craft store)
• glue/hot glue gun
• any kind of dried pasta that you like – but you will need ones with holes in them for a necklace or bracelet
• paint, optional

Procedure/What to do:

• If you want to paint the pasta to make it different colors, you should do that first, and let it dry, before putting the jewelry together.
• Necklace or Bracelet - First tie a knot in one end, then string the dried pasta on in any order you want. Once you have filled the string up, tie a knot in the other end so the dried pasta does not slip off. Finally, tie the two ends together at the desired length to make your necklace or bracelet.
• Earrings - Get the hooks from any craft store and some fishing wire. Tie a strand of fishing wire to the loop at the end of the earring hook. String a few small pieces of dried pasta onto the wire and knot the ends. To jazz it up a little bit, you can tie a knot at the end with a colored bead which you can also get at any craft store.
• Hair Clip – Put some glue on the plain part of the hair clip (a hot glue gun holds the pasta best). Arrange any dried pasta on the clip any way that you desire. Let it dry and it’s ready to use!

Uses: This can be a fun Halloween project to decorate with or it can be a great educational activity to learn about the different bones in the body.
Materials:

• various types of dried pasta (spaghetti, macaroni, penne, rotini, wagon wheels, shells, etc.)
• construction paper
• glue
• crayons
• pencil

Procedure/What to do:

• Draw a stick figure of a person on the paper just so you have the size of skeleton that you want.
• Arrange the various types of dried pasta on the skeleton outline. Do not use glue yet so that you can change the pieces around if you wish to do so.
• Once like how your pieces look, glue them into place.
• If you are doing this as an educational activity, use the crayons to label specific bone structures of the body.

Tip: If you want a ready-made outline of a skeleton to follow, click here http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/anatomy/skeleton/Skelprintout.shtml

Yes, Chinese people have been consuming pasta for a very long time. Since 2000 BCE in fact. And you may have heard of the legend where Marco Polo brought pasta to Italy from China long ago but that really is no more than a legend or tale. In other words, it is not true! A Greek physician produced some works in the 2nd century CE that told of something he called itrion. Itrion was made from water and flour and according to records of the Jerusalem Talmud, it was a kind of boiled dough. Sound like pasta yet?

Well, Isho bar Ali was a 9th century Syrian physician and he developed a dictionary that defined itriyya (formerly itrion). It said that the substance was made with semolina and formed into string-like pasta shapes that were dried out before being cooked. Now it should sound like the pasta we know today.