Activities: Penne 500

Make and race pasta matchbox cars!

Submitted by
Sonam Adinolf

Make cool, colorful cars out of dried pasta and teach your kid he can do more with noodles than shoving them down his throat (or sticking them up his nose)!

Pasta:
Pick up all different shapes and sizes, but make sure to have some penne, wagon wheels and rigatoni.
Tacky glue or a hot glue gun and glue sticks:
Buy tacky glue cheap at Save on Crafts. Remember, kids and hot glue don't mix, so make sure you do all the gluing!
Food coloring:
In multiple colors.
Rubbing alcohol:
Supervise and use caution while using rubbing alcohol.
Measuring spoons and cup
Plastic freezer bag:
We love the easy-zipper kind.
Wax paper
Newspaper
Stickers and markers:
To "detail" the mean road machines.

First, help your kid dye the pasta with food coloring. Forget painting, this is a super easy way to make colorful pasta for all kinds of noodle crafts.
Pour ¼ cup of rubbing alcohol into the zipper bag.
Add one tablespoon of food coloring.
Put in the pasta and shake the bag to get all of the pasta coated.
Let it sit for 30 minutes to an hour depending on how saturated you want the color.
Poke a hole in the bottom of the bag to drain the liquid out (over the sink!).
Then dump the pasta out onto a sheet of newspaper covered with wax paper and let it dry.
One bag per color. Obviously don't let anyone eat the pasta after it's been dyed! (We had to say it.)
When the pasta is a plethora of pretty colors, get down to making some cool cars.
Have him use a tubular pasta (like penne or rigatoni) as the body of the car.
Use the hot glue to stick two wagon wheel pastas onto one side of the penne. Let it dry for a minute or two and then turn it over on its side and then glue on the other two wheels.
Have your kid add a small macaroni as a steering wheel.
Use the stickers and markers to personalize each car. No race car is complete without a bunch of sponsorship plastered across the hood!
Let it all dry.
Get your kid to make a whole fleet of cars for his Penne 500.
When they're all finished, have a "race" on the kitchen floor. It's a little more Mario & Luigi than Mario Andretti, but your kid won't mind!