Quite pasta-bly our favorite food craft ever, we’re keeping it classic with pasta and meatballs – or vegan alternative, of course! This super cool craft project is fun to make and even more fun to play pretend-restaurant with. Scroll down to see the fun games you can play together.
Note: this craft is for play time only, it’s not for eating. Playing with pretend food is a great learning opportunity to review food vocabulary, colors, practice manners, and be creative. If you’re inspired, let’s get started!
Things You’ll Need
- Cream/yellow felt (Linguine)
- Cream/yellow yarn (Spaghetti)
- Red felt (Sauce)
- Brown felt (Mushrooms)
- Green felt (Basil)
- Paper tube
- Large scissors
- Ruler
- Markers
- 4-6 foam balls, 2” diameter
- 3 tbsp. flour
- 3 tbsp. water
- Spoon
- Small cup
- Toothpicks
- Foam block or egg carton
- White craft glue
- Craft paint- brown
- Paint brush
- Paper plate or takeout container
Steps
Linguine: lay out your piece of felt landscape on a cutting surface. With a pencil and ruler, draw lines ½” apart up the sides of the felt. Next, draw lines across the widest part of the piece of felt using an orange marker, connecting the lines from side to side.
Carefully cut out your strips.
Spaghetti: fold in the edges of your paper tube. Loop your yarn around the tube from end to end.
Once you have a thick amount of yarn, an adult can cut through the loop at either end of the tube with a large pair of scissors.
Tomato sauce: use a marker to trace around the paper plate or takeout container onto a piece of red felt.
Draw a wavy shape around the circle. Draw additional sauce shapes on the remaining areas of felt.
Cut out all of these shapes. (We made one large splatter and three small splatters of sauce.)
Mushrooms and Basil: With a brown and green marker, draw mushrooms and basil on brown and green felt.
Here are all of your felt food ingredients. Now it’s time to make the meatballs!
Meatballs: Mix 3 tbsp. flour with 3 tbsp. water in a small cup. Mix this into a lumpy, oatmeal texture. Add a few squirts of white glue and mix again.
Pierce each foam ball with a toothpick. Spoon the mixture onto the foam ball and spread it around with a paintbrush. To help the foam ball stand up, pierce the toothpick upright into some foam or the bottom of an egg carton. Set your meatballs aside and let them dry overnight.
Once dry, paint your meatballs brown and leave them to dry once again.
Once the meatballs are dry, you can use some light brown paint and dry brush on top to accentuate the texture of the meatballs. You can also add a layer of clear glaze or Mod Podge to make your meatballs shiny. Once they’re dry, remove the toothpicks from the meatballs.
Play cooking!
Play takeout!
Play eating!
Buon Appetito!
Once you have your pasta pieces ready to go, pretend to open up your own Pasta Place and create orders with our Restaurant Pretend Play Order Forms! Pretend play has never been so delicious!
