Rainbow Rice

Rainbow rice.


Sensory play is extremely important and crucial for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers because of the experience and ways it lets them LEARN. It gives children the opportunity to simultaneously use several of their senses while letting them control and manipulate the objects, toys, environment, etc... Sensory play can done through so many different types of things such as paint (both edible and non edible), rice, beans, water, etc. It's fun. It's messy. It's explorative! Most importantly, children are learning AND having fun at the same time!

Rice is great for sensory play. To spice things up a bit and make it more exciting, I decided to make rainbow rice! I made red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple rice. How cool!

To be honest, it's quite a long process, but your kids will love it!! It's totally worth it!!

Here's what you need:
8 freezer bags
1-2 boxes of food coloring
1 five pound bag of white rice
1 bottle of hand sanitizer (preferably a big bottle)


Note: I went the cheap route because let's face it, you are using the rice for play!

Here's how you make it:
1. Put 2 cups of rice into 6 freezer bags. This should use up your entire bag.



2. Add 10-12 drops of food coloring to each bag. (Note: For orange, add 8 drops of yellow and 8 drops of red. For purple, add 8 drops of red, and 8 drops of blue.)

3. Then 2 tablespoons of hand sanitizer to each bag, and seal up the bags.

4. While the bags are closed, mix the rice, food coloring, and hand sanitizer with your hands from the outside of the bag until the rice is colored. (Note: You can shake the bag, and roll it to help mix it together.)


5. Let the color absorb into the rice for 20-25 minutes.

6. Then heat the oven to 170F degrees, lay each bag out on a cookie sheet, and dry the rice in the oven for 15-18 minutes. (Note: Repeat for all 6 colors.)



7. Once cooled, separate the rice into 2 bags!


8. Dump into a tote, pan, or bucket. Enjoy!! You can put cars, toys, or anything that your child likes to play with into the rice. Give them measuring scoops, spoons, etc... and watch them learn!





Note: Always supervise your children during sensory play. Small pieces can be a choking hazard.