Pasta: shapes and colours

Tell the children that they will be using their passports to fly to Italy, but first they are going to find out some information about the country.

There is obviously a great deal that could be investigated, however this is intended as a ‘taster’.

Ask the children about what they already know about Italy. You might like to scribe any suggestions on a board. Talk about Italy using the picture sheets provided as a prompt for discussion.

The sheets could be used as a follow-up activity in several ways:

• Make several copies and cut up to play pelmanism. (turn the pictures upside down, and play a matching game)

• Match words or sentences to the pictures by sticking them together.

• Cut up some/all of the pictures and write words or sentences underneath.

• Use them to make a little fact book about Italy.

• Find out more information about one or more of the pictures by researching further using books or the internet.

Journey to Italy

The idea of a fantasy journey can be made as simple or elaborate as time, space or resources allow.

The children could be ‘checked in’ using their passports and/or boarding passes which might be ‘officially’ stamped.

You might set up seating in front of an interactive white board to look like an airplane, i.e. in rows with an ‘aisle’ down the middle.

You might like to role-play a member of the cabin crew and run through the safety precautions!

You might like to count down to the ‘take-off’ together from 10 to zero in Italian! (dieci, nove, otto, sette, sei, cinque, quattro, tre, due, uno, zero)

When ready, use Google earth on the white board to fly to your destination in Italy. (Google Earth has a 'fly to' facility and a flight simulator, although it would be a good idea to try it out and set it up prior to the activity)

Investigate pasta

Tell the children that they are going to investigate pasta so that they will be ready to learn even more and come up with some great questions when they see to the real Italian pasta maker.

Activity suggestions:

Talk about the pasta that children know and that they like to eat. see how many types they can name. Write the words on a board. You might try spelling the words together and talk about how they all end in either ‘e’ or ‘i’ . there are very few english words that end in ‘i’ Children might try and name some (e.g. taxi, mini, multi)

If appropriate to the phonic stage, you might make the link to the ‘y’ ending sound in english. 

Show examples of as many types of pasta as possible (there are over 600 worldwide!).

Ask children to match real pasta to pictures and names on a sheet (available as a download).

Mix up the pasta and allow children to sort the shapes.

Encourage children to look at the pasta shapes very closely, perhaps using magnifying glasses.

Use the shapes to print with.

Provide modelling dough and challenge the children to create the pasta shapes for themselves.

Ask them which shapes they like the best and to think about which ones are the hardest to make (this activity may spark children’s curiosity about how the real shapes are made).

Prepare sensory trays of cooked spaghetti. Encourage the children to describe how it looks and feels and to write the words on cards around the tray (spaghetti used to be eaten with the fingers a long, long time ago in the 16th century!).

Look for poems about spaghetti (there are many available!) and/or use the words generated to write your own.

Read ‘Oodles of Noodles’ by Diana Hendry and illustrated by Sarah Massini, published by Little Tiger Press, ISBN 978-84506-450-1, about a mum whose pasta machine goes badly wrong and her two children have to stop a flood of noodles!

Ask children if they know what pasta is made from. Make sure that children understand that pasta can be bought fresh as well as dried. Look at the ingredients for both types (generally durum wheat, semolina, flour and water for dried pasta; durum wheat, semolina, flour and egg for fresh). It may also be helpful to explain (or watch a video clip of) how wheat is made into flour.

Ask children if they can guess what ingredients might be added to make the coloured pasta and take suggestions.

Write the different pasta colours on one set of cards (black, green, red, orange, purple) and the dyes used on another set (squid/ cuttlefish ink, spinach, tomatoes/ beetroot, carrots, squash/pumpkin), read them together and ask children to match them up.

• Black – squid/cuttlefish

• Green – spinach

• Purple – tomatoes/beetroot

• Red – carrots

• Orange – squash/pumpkin

Supporting downloadable materials are:

• Pretend passport
  
  
• Pasta food facts
  
  
• Pasta name match game