# Paint with Spaghetti Brooms
> Tie a bundle of spaghetti with a rubber band, cook it, and use the floppy 'broom' to swish, splat and drag paint across big paper. It's a less messy way to paint without brushes, good for kids who don't like paint on their hands.
- URL: https://www.funlittles.com/paint-with-spaghetti-brooms/
- Ages: 2–6 yrs · Difficulty: easy · Mess: medium
- Time: prep 30 min, activity 30 min
- Works for: one-on-one, small group, whole class · one batch serves about 2 kids
- Skills: process-art, fine-motor, sensory-exploration, colors, pre-writing
- Cautions: wheat-gluten, ingestion-risk

## Materials (one batch)
- Spaghetti (dry) (household)
- 1 piece Rubber bands (household)
- Cooking oil (household)
- 1 piece Large pot for boiling (household)
- Kid-friendly paint in several colors
- 2 piece Paper plates (as paint palettes) (household)
- Large roll paper or butcher paper
- Painter's tape (optional) (household)
- 1 piece Uncooked spaghetti strings (for writing) (optional) (household)

## Safety
- An adult does the cooking and handles the boiling water and hot pot.
- Let the cooked spaghetti brooms cool for a few minutes before handing them to kids.
- Use a tie that won't melt or burn during cooking (the author used a regular rubber band).
- Rubber bands and bits of spaghetti are small parts. Supervise toddlers closely, especially once the bands come off.
- Spaghetti covered in paint is not food. Don't let kids eat it.
- Spaghetti contains wheat/gluten. Check for wheat allergies in a group.

## Before you start
- Tie bundles of dry spaghetti with a rubber band about 1/4 of the way from the bottom.
- Adult: cook the bundles as usual with a bit of oil, drain, and let them cool for a few minutes.

## Steps
1. Gather a bundle of dry spaghetti and tie a rubber band around it about 1/4 of the way from the bottom.
2. Adult: cook the bundles like you usually cook spaghetti, with a bit of oil in the water.
3. Adult: drain the brooms and let them cool for a few minutes.
4. Tape a big sheet of paper to the table and put a few paint colors on paper plates.
5. Let each child pick their colors and dip a spaghetti broom in the paint.
6. Swish, splatter and drag the broom across the paper.
7. Try different strokes: swirl in circles, splat it down, or tap it like a drum.
8. Pick up an uncooked spaghetti string and write letters or numbers in the wet paint.
9. Let the painting dry and hang it up.

## Tips
- I had to sell the deal to them: it's a spaghetti brush, so don't separate the strings. Otherwise they'll pull the band off and have a ball with the colored spaghetti. Take your pictures first!
- With a younger toddler around, limit the number of paints out. Kids are always free to swap colors.
- Let the kids pick the colors. Big A was big on orange and pink for the day.
- Drumming with the brooms makes great splatters.
- Big A started writing on the painting with an uncooked spaghetti string all by herself. It's perfect for practicing letters and numbers.
- Great for kids who are weird about paint on their hands. (from readers)

## FAQ
**What do I tie the spaghetti with?** A regular rubber band. An earlier version of the post said 'story band', which was a typo. Make sure your tie won't melt or burn while cooking.

## The original post by TurkeyMom (2012)

This art activity will be a good change when you want to paint without conventional brushes but don't want to get truly messy. For other activities where we have painted without brushes visit our **[art activities](https://www.funlittles.com/category/art-projects/)** category page. A good example is our [**squirt painting**](https://www.funlittles.com/art-activities-with-squirt-guns/) and our [**throw ball painting.**](https://www.funlittles.com/art-activity-throw-ball-painting/) The idea for this art activity is pretty straight forward. During a paint activity, where you “paint” without the brushes, spaghetti comes in handy. We have seen many spaghetti painting projects out there, but they are all truly messy and did I mention FUN! Both my kids love messy, sensory play but there are some who don’t want to get their hands truly dirty.

### Unconventional art activities with spaghetti- how to

**For those who don't want to get messy, tie a regular rubber band around the spaghetti around 1/4 of the way from the bottom and cook them like you usually do with a bit of oil.** Once done, set it out to a cool for a few minutes. Now you have your own spaghetti brooms to paint. Make sure your tying material doesn’t’ melt/burn during the cooking process.  WE LOVED our brooms! The girls were thrilled and I did talk them into not separating the strings. It is a spaghetti brush- I had to sell the deal to them else, they would have removed the band and had a ball with the colored spaghetti which eventually did happen-Thankfully not before I took pictures of their painting The girls pick out the colors in all our art activities and I try to bring those out. Since I have younger toddler around I try to limit the number of paints out there. They are always free to swap colors. Big A was big on orange and pink for the day.. Baby asked (demanded) for some pink and green ( blue and yellow actually- her colors are WAY off, it is funny (for her Big Sis)) They swished, splattered, dragged their brooms soaked with paint. Watching your kids engage in open ended art activities is such a joy! They tried playing drums with their “brushes” and ended up splattering paint. They tried many different strokes for their painting. We were a bit heavy on the orange-green combo and Big A was on a mission to cover up the entire paper by just splatting the broom.





We used a bit of blue and yellow too.



Two tiny hands painting in unison! I know corny- But I'm their mom and I love their tiny hands and feet pictures.



Big A loved writing on the painting with a uncooked spaghetti string- WITHOUT any prompts like “ Do you want to try writing?” She picked up the string and started writing all by herself. Perfect for practicing letters, numbers.. 

Eventually the tension was too much and the bands came off and we did the good ol' spaghetti painting the MESSY way. Here is our final product hanging on our kitchen wall.

 **Pretty sweet I think. Next time I'm gonna spell out their names with some cooked spaghetti strings and let them dry. Slowly peel out for some tape resist art.**

**Thank you for reading!**

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Other open ended art activities in our [**art projects**](https://www.funlittles.com/category/art-projects/) category page