Macaroni Necklace

Recommended Age Group: 4 Years +

Materials Required:

• Poster Paints
• Paintbrush
• Yarn
• Scissors
• Large Macaroni Noodles
• Paper Plates
• Masking Tape

Instructions:
This is an excellent craft to help your child further develop her fine motor skills. It is also rather messy which means you child will love it!

Spread a piece of newspaper or a towel over your work surface to avoid paint drips and splatters. Pour a generous selection of macaroni onto a paper plate. The larger the noodles you can find, the better. Standard macaroni is too small, but larger noodles are perfect for this age group. Put another plate or two around the work area for the macaroni that has already been painted to dry.

Set up the poster paint and offer your child the brush. Let her paint her macaroni any color she likes. You may want to protect her clothing and be sure to use washable paints as paint will wind up all over her fingers and hands from handling the painted macaroni.

Allow your child to paint as many macaroni pieces as she wants. As each is coated with paint, place it gently on one of the paper plates to dry. You may want to encourage her to sort her macaroni by color as it dries to help with the necklace portion of the craft.

When the painted macaroni is dry, choose one piece to be the start of the necklace. Thread that piece onto a length of yarn. Put a large piece of masking tape at the top of the yarn so that the noodles don’t fall off. Continue threading the noodles until the yarn is completely full of painted macaroni. Encourage your child to develop a pattern or two while she is threading the colors.

When the yarn is full, carefully remove the tape from the end and tie the two ends of the yarn together in a secure knot. Place the necklace around your child’s neck and let her enjoy her new custom jewelry.