Do you love sensory bins? One of my favorite sensory bins is the rainbow rice one because there are so many ways to use it! Because the coloured rice is so vibrant, children can’t wait to dig in and start playing. It’s also a wonderful way to learn colors. Read on to discover how to dye rice and make your own rainbow rice sensory bin.
RAINBOW RICE
This rainbow rice bin is perfect for preschoolers and has so many different sensory elements to it. Even though it’s literally just rice, adding the dye to the rice makes it fun for kids to play with. My kids kept begging to play with the rice over and over again.
And even though your rice won’t stay in pretty rainbow patterns for long, the mixed colors look just as pretty as the separated rainbow.
I really encourage you to get your children involved in the creation of the sensory bins. Let them put their own touches on it, even if sometimes they choose to add something that doesn’t quite fit!
That’s the beauty of a sensory bin – the children lead the play. Don’t forget to check out all of our sensory bins.
How to make coloured rice
- Large tray or container
- Rice
- Food coloring
- Vinegar
- Oven safe containers
Rainbow Rice Sensory Bin
Before you can play with the dyed rainbow rice, you have to make it!
I thought it would be hard, but it was so easy.
First, divide your rice into 5 oven-safe containers. I did about a cup per container.
Add 1/2 a teaspoon of vinegar and a splash of rainbow color. We did red, orange, yellow, green, and blue.
Mix the rice with a spoon.
Place your containers in the oven at 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Heat the rice for 30 minutes to dry it out.
Once the rice is dry, let it cool before giving it to the kids to play with.
Arrange the rice in a line of rainbow colors inside your tray.
I really loved that there were so many different ways to play and explore with this sensory bin. Over a few days, the kids kept coming back and finding a different way to engage with the activity.
Some of the ways they played were:
- Making it rain colored rice on the tray
- Digging into the rice with their hands
- Making rice castles
- Outlining shapes in the rice
- Outlining letters in the rice
- Playing hide and seek with small toys in the rice
As you can see, we had great fun with our dyed rice sensory bin and I”m sure you will too.
Learn how to make colored salt and check out the best play dough recipe.
