I decided to make one for us on a grander scale. I bought a big bin and 30 pounds of pasta in bulk. The kids played with it for over an hour along with a visiting guest. It’s like an indoor sand table, but with less mess. Even when the macaroni gets scattered it is easy to scoop back up and put back in. If you do the activity on a large blanket it is even easier.
It would be easy to incorporate some speech practice too if you’re doing it one-on-one. You can target in, out, up, down, more, big, little, etc. You could also use (bury them and then dig them back out) small dolls or lego figures for mama, dada, baby, and other family members. You could use small animal figures for animal sounds like moo, baa, neigh, etc. If you’re working on colors you can incorporate different color cups and practice your color words. If you’re working on two word phrases it’s even better because you can do mama in, daddy out, uh oh baby, moo up, baa down, etc. Fun and speech all at the same time.