Fall Tree Craft with Noodles

In my mind, our Creamy Vegetable Pasta is the exact type of meal I want to eat when the weather starts getting colder. I throw it in the same bucket with stews, casseroles and chilis. Comfort food! Fall is the season when the cold weather starts creeping in. So, I thought it would be fun to have a Fall Tree Craft.

tree drawn on paper with dyed pasta shells as leaves

This Fall Tree Craft also provides a great opportunity to share some fun facts about this meal’s featured ingredient:

🧀Parmesan Cheese🧀

Parmigiano-Reggiano (aka parmesan) is named after a few of the Italian provinces where it's produced (Parma & Reggio Emilia).
Parmesan is made from the milk of grass-fed cows.
Parmesan is rich in calcium, a mineral that helps our bones & teeth grow.
As parmesan ages, it develops its rich and unique flavor. Most parmesan cheese wheels are aged for an average of 24 months.
Parmesan wheels contain a protective outer coat called rind which helps keep out mold as the cheese ages.

This Fall Tree Craft is pretty easy, but you may have to step in to show your kids the next step a few times. When it was time to draw the tree on paper, I pulled up an image of a tree on my laptop, so the kids would have some guidance. However, if you look at their creations in the photos below, you'd never know they had any kind of example. Let's just call their artwork imaginatively unparadigmatic. Lol. Most importantly, my kids really did have fun with this one. Favorite parts were definitely shaking the "grass" and naturally, getting glue all over the place 🙂

💡Overview💡

Featured Ingredient: Parmesan Cheese

Corresponding Recipe:Creamy Vegetable Pasta

Skills supported: fine motor (coloring, gluing, etc), math (measuring, counting), following instructions

✂ Supplies ✂

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½ cup shredded parmesan cheese
A few drops of green paint mixed with water or Green food dye
Gallon Ziploc bag
Parchment paper
Markers (Fall colors: green, brown, orange, red, yellow, grey)
Thick White Paper
¼ cup orecchiette or shell noodles
Glue

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📝Instructions📝

Consider setting up the craft before cooking so your kids can get to work right away.

Pour your cheese into a ziploc bag. Add several drops of green food dye, close the bag, and shake it baby! Pour out the green cheese onto a piece of parchment paper and let it air dry while you continue the craft.
Draw a big, thick tree on your white paper with a brown or grey marker.
Use all the markers to color your shells different Fall colors. These will be leaves on the tree! Lay the noodles on a plate or countertop.
Now it's time to make grass! At the base of your tree, apply glue where you think grass would be. Then sprinkle the green cheese all along the glue. Shake your artwork over the parchment paper to get rid of excess cheese.
Now it's time for leaves! Glue your colored shells to the tree...some to the branches, some falling in the air, and some on the ground (on top of the grass). Behold Fall Tree Craft!