Vermicelli Rice Noodle Play

I've seen so many awesome sensory play ideas around the net involving spaghetti (like this post, and also this one, and how fun does this look?!) but hadn't until today gotten around to cooking up some pasta for the girls to test out.
At the supermarket this week I came across big packs of vermicelli noodles on sale and thought they'd be perfect, not only do they have a great texture but they also require minimal cooking time - 2 minutes steeped in a bowl boiling water and you're done.
The girls really enjoyed this activity and it carried over into a lot of imaginary play and great fine motor practice. At first neither of them would put their hands anywhere near the noodles, using the tongs and the sieves to handle them carefully, but after some gentle encouragement (yeah, I had my hands right in there ;D) they were soon exploring the texture and squishing away.

WE USED:

* vermicelli rice noodles
(prepare in a bowl of hot water, then drain and fill bowl with cold water)
* large tub
* utensils for play; tongs, sieves, forks, chopsticks, small containers etc...

My girls are very sensitive to textures, namely anything squishy or wet. We kept this activity contained in a tub and they explored the noodles in using utensils from the kitchen.
Tongs and chopsticks provide a great fine motor workout and adding small containers and sieves to fill is good for developing hand eye co-ordination.

The noodles had a great fine, slippery texture once cooked. I kept them in a bowl of cold water after cooking to both cool them down quickly and add an extra play element with the water.

The girls spent a long time making 'worm soup' using their tongs and containers.

Adding cutlery to their play was great practice for Squeak who is having trouble with her grip.

Eventually the hands went in, and then it was a squishy squashy free for all :D

At $1.20 for a big pack the rice noodles were great inexpensive fun, and after we were done playing we drained off the water and stored them in the fridge ready for more play tomorrow.