Being wintertime, sometimes you need an activity indoors. Last month, we pulled out some beans, pasta noodles, and some pumpkin seeds we saved to make some art with them. It was a hit! The older ones really loved it and spent the most time with it. The younger ones, 4 and 5 year olds, were not engaged that long but it was worth getting out for them to see what they make.

I do recommend putting the beans/noodles in smaller bowls so that they can reach them easier. It seemed better use of our glue to put some on a small paper plate and let them dip their bean into it before placing it on the paper. My 5 year old may have emptied a glue bottle on his couple of pictures before I realized we should have done this. Oh, well. Live and learn, right! But you can maybe save your glue by starting with that setup so I wanted to mention it.

I did not guide them beyond telling them some quick ideas, such as a sun, a snowman, a person, an animal, a plant, or whatever they want to make! They were very creative in what they made, I think!

For those needing to be aware of food allergies or the like, we used Tinkyada rice pasta for all of the pasta you see. The raw pumpkin seeds we saved from pumpkins we cooked at Thanksgiving for this project. The beans are just regular beans from the store. You could use a variety of safe foods for your children to handle if these are not safe. You could also use rice and dye some of it to add a little extra.