We celebrated the day by doing a little rescue mission. After nap, I told Jude that some aliens had come and taken the farm animals, and he needed to rescue them from the alien webs they had left behind.
The play tray had colored spaghetti for the alien webs and little animals taped down by frog tape. The directions for colored spaghetti are at the end of the post. I offered some tools to Jude to play. They give the activity a little extra fine-motor practice.
Jude happily dug through the webs, transferred them from one bucket to another, and used his tools to play. He had no interest in saving the animals, however. He saved one or two and then left them to fend for themselves.
If you are replicating this activity, or any of my activities, especially with a 12-18 month old, it’s important to have realistic expectations of their play. They will play how they best feel fit and for short spurts. As often as possible, I like to leave the activity out for Jude to return to. We have much better success in activities when he can play for a bit and then move on to return to it later. The important thing for me is Jude getting to explore different senses and work on some of his skills (fine-motor, sorting, transferring, etc) all while getting a chance to play!
To make the colored spaghetti, cook spaghetti as normal. Rinse immediately with cold water when it’s finished to halt cooking. Separate into ziploc bags (as many as colors you want). Use one teaspoon of vinegar and a liberal squirt of food coloring. The more food coloring you use, the brighter the color. Mix the color around from the outside of the bag and then it’s ready to go!
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