How to use spaghetti to paint like Jackson Pollock

Painting with spaghetti is a pretty AWESOME kid activity for many reasons:

It works those oh-so-important fine motor skills

You can set it up to teach mixing primary colors to make secondary colors

Extension activity for the Vermicomposting project you've been doing with the kids. Get it?
"Worm painting."

Encourages kids to paint with non-traditional tools

It's a good way to recycle leftover spaghetti noodles when you've made too much for dinner

Set-up and clean-up is a snap with no paint-filled brushes to wash when finished

It's cheap

Pollock was pretty crazy and so is painting like Pollock..crazy fun that is!

And the best reason...it's messy, goofy fun!

Step 1: Gather necessary materials

To paint with spaghetti you'll need a few things:

Newspaper to protect the workspace. Trust me, it's messy!

Tempera Paint (I like to use this type of paint because it washes up and out so easily)

A couple of shallow dishes to pour the paint into.
(Tin pie plates work well for this and are a good excuse to go to Marie Callender's for a $5
pie...Mmmmm pie)

Cooked spaghetti noodles
(I like to put aside a few handfuls for later use when we're having spaghetti for dinner. I prefer
thick noodles because they are easy for little hands to grip. However, any type will work. In
fact, thinner noodles would really give young fingers a dexterity workout)

A piece of art paper...the bigger the better.
(I'd pull out a few pieces because this activity is so fun that the kid is bound to want more)

One eager kid clothed in a paint-safe outfit

*Side note: String, yarn, twine, ribbon or really any kind of thick thread works well for this project and can be used instead of spaghetti noodles and would be fun to experiment with. You can also have kids clip a clothes pin to it for a less messy method... but who really wants that?

Comments

[flying_carrot]

i saw this yesterday, and i made it few minutes ago. im not sure how its gonna look when picture get dry and when i remove spaghetti, cause i think that colors weren't strong enough. anyways, it must be awesome! :)))))

[MissJessica184]

I LOVE this idea! Very cool. I would just be afraid of the spaghetti breaking. I guess that would just add to the masterpiece, though. Also, I love the colors (my school colors, so I guess I'm sort of biased). Either way, it's very nice. I'll be trying it sometime soon! ♥ Jessica ♥

[Thaikarl]

what's "al dente"? is it a brand of spaghetti? where do you buy it?

[m6233555m]

al dente is italian... look here--> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_dente lol

[Thaikarl]

oh. yes i shoulda googled that. my bad. i'm a wet noodle.

[sneakyparasol]

aawwwww! cute!

[darcylucilly]

This looks so fun! And Pollock is one of my favorites! I think my 3-year-old will love this!

[Swampy591]

I like this! You can also use marbles dipped in paint...just put your paper in a shoebox or something. Another use for leftover noodles - put them in a ziplock with some foodcoloring and rubbing alcohol overnight. Drain them the next morning for glueable (but sadly, inedible) artwork.

[ruthy nov]

very nice! for protection you can take a large garbage plastic sac and cut openings for the head and arms. It protects kids top to bottom. You can use the opportunity to teach how colors are made. Just make sure to present every time only 2 of the three basic colors - red, blue and yellow. Let them find out by themselves what happens when the mix.

[lou_adele]

I've done this with my pre-school class using noodles (I live in Shanghai) and they ADORE it! Thanks for showing such a great step-by-step.

[floatingbones]

I appreciate the project, but the headline is a bit glib. Pollack's artwork was remarkable in how he methodically distributed the paint to the medium. Slinging some spaghetti around has pretty darn little to do with that. It's kinda like saying that learning how to type is all you need to write the Great American Novel.

[goatgirly]

Do you appreciate Pollock's work? Because you spelled his name wrong.

[canida]

Nice! When I was a kid we also finger-painted with pudding. (The pudding dries nicely if it's not laid on too thickly.) Combining colorful pudding with your spaghetti technique would make for all-edible fun!

[Sandisk1duo]

Wear an OLD shirt

[canida]

I think the classic painting cover-up is an old adult's button-up shirt worn backwards.

[memilycox]

I haven't done this yet with my 1st graders, but I will let you know!!

[deliberatefiction]

haha, this picture is super cute :)

[webman3802]

Great idea! One thing we use at church for when kids are painting, we have some t-shirts of different sizes with the back cut open. So, for an apron, they just grab the right size t-shirt and slip their arms in.

[rob-e]

As usual -- great job OtterhopDotCom! Love the mess-making!

[uguy]

Well done, good job and oh the fun!