That’s right – I have teamed up with my Freebielicious friends again to share some

teaching tricks and special free treats for you!

For my trick, I’ve had ton’s of people write and ask me how I get my sensory table pasta so bright when I dye it, so I thought I’d give you my little ‘how-to.’  I’m not sure it’s a big secret, but it seems to work perfectly every time I do it and my colors are amazing.

First you collect a variety of pasta.  Listen . . . I know expensive to purchase a bunch of pasta each month, but if you ask your parents to donate, they usually are happy to send is a box of pasta that costs them all of a $1-$2.  It’s cheap, and they really DO want to help out if they can.  This is a simple way.

Get yourself some gallon size ziploc bags and dump your pasta in it so it’s 2/3-3/4 of the way full.  Now put in about 1/4 C of rubbing alcohol.  This helps so the pasta doesn’t get gummy (Who thinks of this stuff?  Really!  I mean who would guess.).  Now add your food coloring.  I personally use NEON colors almost exclusively.  You can mix the colors for some fun hues and the color just seems to be brighter.  I’m not shy about adding it either.  One or two drops?  Not for this girl.  I put in alot.  I mix and add and mix and add and mix so that I know it will all get covered.  And then I wait . . . and wait and wait . . .  Sometimes, I’ll let it sit for a couple of hours until I think the color is exactly what I want it to be.  Now lay out some tin foil on a counter and dump the contents of your bag onto the foil and let it dry.  I let it dry over night and usually turn the noodles a couple of times to make sure it’s drying clear through.  And that’s it.

And as for a treat . . .

I’ve included a little word family maze for you all.  This is a favorite of my own students and each week with each new word family, I have one of these for them to complete. Just click on the picture below.

 For this particular maze, just use a bingo dotter (or they can color the trick or treat bags) and have them follow all the ~ag family words written on the trick or treat bags as they help the witch make her way to the candy.

  You can find mazes just like these and tons of other word family activities in my Word Family Galore Packets.

Hop along to my next Freebielicious friend (everyone loves CupCakes) to see what her Trick & Treat is!