Pasta Literacy Centers - Bright Ideas August

Welcome to another Bright Ideas Link Up! 

My idea this month is a simple, inexpensive way to practice hands-on literacy with little ones. All you need is dried pasta!

Have you ever tried using pasta in your literacy centers? This is an old idea that I've been using for  20 years: dried spaghetti, curved macaroni, and dried ABC pasta.

With younger students, we simply build capital letters with spaghetti, identify them with partners, and copy them onto paper. I like to make special "word mats" out of terrycloth facecloths so the pasta won't roll. Another idea the students LOVE is pushing the pasta into Play-doh so it stays in place. When they are ready, we practice our sight words. Students also love making their names!

                            

Next, we use spaghetti for straight lines and macaroni for curved lines to build each letter of the lower case alphabet. The kinesthetic nature of the task is excellent for developing fine motor control and for drawing attention to the formation of letters. There is a great deal of decision making when choosing the pieces involved in each letter.  

              

Here are some of the activities we do in class:

1. Copy letters from an alphabet chart using pasta. Write the letter to reinforce understanding.

2. Use the pasta to build daily or weekly sight words for an instant and reusable literacy center.

3. Practice words that contain b, d, p and q for students having problems with reversing letters. Many times having to physically build the letter and decide which side of the "stick" the round part goes on can really help with reversals.

4. More advanced students can build whole sentences  - try ABC pasta for this if you can find some. Dried legumes (like split peas) are perfect for periods that won't roll away.

5. Create a word on lined paper as shown above, then ask a partner to "edit" the word by pointing out formation problems, such as letter not being on the line properly. They can then "fix" the problem when they write the word themselves. Again, it draws attention to proper letter formation in a unique way, which then transfers to their writing in other tasks. 

Students love working with the small pieces, and if they lose a few along the way it's not a big deal. Best of all, there's very little prep for the teacher to do and the pasta can be used for years. Sometimes I dye the vowels, blends or digraphs a different color, or use different shaped pasta just to keep it interesting!

For more ideas, please visit me on Facebook, Pinterest or Teachers Pay Teachers! 

You can see more wonderful ideas by clicking one of the links below!

An InLinkz Link-up