Activities
Pasta is delicious, but it’s not just for eating! With so many shapes and sizes, pasta makes a wonderful and educational tool that can be incorporated into learning activities for students of all ages. Break out a package or two of pasta to liven up your lessons in art, math, science, and beyond!
Pasta Learning Activities for Elementary Students
1. The life cycle of a butterfly
Teach the life cycle of a butterfly with a hands-on project using four types of pasta. Use orzo for the eggs, rotini for the caterpillars, shells for the chrysalis, and farfalle for the butterflies. Your students are guaranteed to remember the stages of life for the butterfly with this fun craft!
2. Pasta skeletons
Once you’ve taught your students about the bones in the human body, you can reinforce the shapes and sizes of the major bones using different types of pasta. Elbow macaroni can stand in as ribs while a piece of penne makes a good femur. Broken bits of spaghetti can transform into fingers and toes – also called phalanges for your science-minded students.
3. Dinosaur skeletons
Don’t just teach your students about human skeletons! Supplement any dinosaur unit by having your students make dinosaur skeletons from pasta. Elbow macaroni make great tail bones and penne is good for arms and legs. Extend the activity even further by burying the pasta bones and having your students excavate them before gluing them into skeletons.
4. Patterns with pasta
Have your students make all kinds of different patterns using pasta. You can color a variety of shapes ahead of time. Then encourage your students to make pasta jewelry using different patterns.
5. Math manipulatives
Put away the traditional math manipulatives for something new! Let your students choose their favorite shape of pasta to use as a hands-on tool for learning how to add. For example, rotini makes great curly hair for making faces that also help your students grasp how to add.
6. Fine motor skills
Encourage the formation of fine motor skills by having your students thread pasta. Stick a spaghetti noodle in a blob of playdoh and ask your students to thread penne pasta on it. Sticking penne or rotini noodles into a small-mouthed glass jar is another great way to boost fine motor skills.
7. Sorting
Help your students learn to identify differences by having them sort pasta. Set out several different shapes of pasta, such as elbow macaroni, farfalle, and cavatappi, and have the kids sort them by shape.
8. Follow directions
Teach your students to follow visual directions with pasta. Create a few colored cards or images of patterns, such as green, green, purple, yellow, green, green, purple, yellow. Give your students colored penne pasta and have them thread it onto dowels following each of the different patterns. Lace the pasta onto string and make jewelry as an alternate way to practice this skill.
9. Practice counting
Counting isn’t just for preschoolers! Even elementary students need regular practice counting and matching items to different numbers. Pasta is the perfect medium for practicing this skill. Write numbers on wooden craft sticks and ask your students to glue pasta to the sticks to match the numbers. As a bonus, this craft also increases fine motor skills.
10. Finger puppet pasta
Writing a play and performing it are great ways to practice grammar, spelling, and public speaking. Have your students use paints to make tiny puppets out of rigatoni. Rigatoni is a great size to fit over kids’ fingers! Then your students can write and perform plays to go with their finger puppets.
11. Letters and spelling
Use loose pasta to practice making letters or spelling words. Any type of pasta can work for this activity! Simply write the letters or words you want your students to practice and have them glue pasta on your lines to create literacy art. This type of hands-on project helps cement letters and words into your students’ brains.
12. Practice symmetry
Symmetry is an important math concept taught in elementary math and pasta is the perfect tool for helping your students practice. Invite your students to create mandalas or collages that are the same on both sides. Have them describe the shapes and colors they use and why what they created is symmetrical.
13. Make animals
Any school unit about animals will be enhanced with some pasta creatures! If you’re learning about habitats, have your students use a variety of pasta shapes to create animals that live in each. Or have your students make animals and then classify them into groups, such as mammals and reptiles.
14. Pasta sculptures
The chance to simply create something is an enormously rewarding and educational task. Students must plan, rework, and carry out their idea from start to finish. In addition to teaching perseverance, it also teaches patience and out-of-the-box problem solving skills. Plus, you’ll have some awesome art to display when they’re finished!
15. Texture with noodles
One way young children learn about the world is through texture and the way things feel. Pasta learning activities are a great way to bring texture alive since different types feel different than others. Reinforce this concept by making textured mittens using pasta to create the illusion of cable knit. Give your students paper mitten shapes and have them create the cable knitting using whatever type of pasta they choose. Once they’re painted, the mittens will look almost like Grandma made them!
16. Pasta families
Use the book The Pasta Family, by Cory and Lauren Tilson, to start a class discussion about families how each one is different and special. After reading the book, your students can make lasagna puppets of their family members or draw faces on farfalle to represent each person in their family.
17. Collage art
Give your students free reign to make whatever they want using colored pasta and glue. Perhaps they will create an image of a flower garden or end up with something much more abstract. Whatever they make, students will be practicing spatial awareness and fine motor skills.
18. Cutting skills
Give students a chance to boost their cutting skills by giving them scissors and a variety of cooked pasta noodles. Students will get plenty of practice holding their scissors, as well as figure out how to maneuver their hands to cut different widths and textures of pasta.
19. Spelling words
Use alphabet pasta to give your students a fun, hands-on way to practice sight words and spelling words.
Pasta Learning Activities for Secondary Students
20. Famous landmarks
Pasta learning activities aren’t just for the little ones! Supplement your social studies lessons about famous landmarks by having your students recreate them using pasta. Your students will be able to choose a landmark and then decide what shapes of pasta would be most useful in recreating their chosen location.
21. Simple machines
Challenge your science students to create a simple machine using different pasta shapes. Then they can take turns sharing their simple machines and describing how they work.
22. Pasta abacus
Take your students back to the past by having them make an abacus using a shoebox, straws, and penne pasta. Once completed, show your students how an abacus can help them solve simple addition problems.
23. A new take on chess
There are so many themed chess games out there. Your students can take these options one step further by creating their own chess games using pasta. They will get to design each of the pieces using different pasta shapes and then they can build brain power by playing against each other.
24. Presented with pasta
Put a new spin on the classic retelling a story assignment by having your students create book reports or play summaries using pasta. The pasta can become the characters or be used to create a unique setting.
25. Stars in the sky
Reinforce the different kinds of stars by having your students create them using pasta. Students can research different kinds of stars and then decide which pasta shapes will best represent each. Then they can get creative by making the stars they’ve designed.
26. Finish the picture
Give your students part of a picture and challenge them to find somewhere to put a piece or two of pasta. This activity encourages creative thinking, but you’ll probably also get some humorous creations!
27. Real pasta
Don’t just limit yourself to using already made pasta to teach lessons. Teach your students how to make real pasta! Reading and carrying out a recipe are important math and life concepts all students need to learn.
28. Cursive writing
Let your students practice writing in cursive using cooked spaghetti noodles. This hands-on practice is more likely to help students remember their cursive letters because it requires both sides of the brain to complete.
29. Code with pasta
Introduce simple coding concepts to your students using pasta shapes. Assign a numerical value to each type of pasta and then have your students make grids to record their codes in.
30. Forces with pasta
Encourage your students to explore the concepts of weight and balance by having them build spaghetti noodle structures to hold books. As students create, they will discover how to arrange the noodles to hold the maximum amount of weight.
The next time you find yourself in the pasta aisle at the grocery store, pick up a few extra boxes of noodles. They’re cheap, and they hold endless possibilities for your students to learn and explore concepts that encompass all the core subjects.
