Here is a fun and different way to use your rainbow rice! Let your toddler mix and pour it together in this make rainbow rice sensory bin activity!
I recently make a fresh batch of coloured rice (instructions below) and I wanted to use it in a slightly different way with my toddlers. So instead of filling our sensory bin with the rice I decided to just fill our colourful bowls.
I gave them some spoons and whisks and lots of container to pour and mix the rice into and viola! A fun and colourful sensory bin was formed!
My toddlers immediately were drawn to this one. Who wouldn’t be? The colours of the rice in the small bowls is irresistible!
How they played
Toddlers never do what you expect them to do. I expect them to scoop and spoon out the coloured rice into the containers, creating rainbow rice a little bit at a time.
Nope! They saw the bowls of rice and were thrilled! They proceeded to grab the bowls and dump the entire contents out into the cups, other bowls and containers. So pretty quickly the rice got mixed up and was amazing!
Eventually I refilled the bowls with more rainbow rice (rice already mixed up) that I had and the dumping continued. Once everything was dumped, they used the bowls and cups to scoop up the rice in the sensory bin and pour it into the muffin tin and bowls.
Adding additional rice to the bowls is helpful with the sensory bin. Ash really wanted to scoop the rice from the bottom of the bin so that is the main reason why I added more. Nay would have been content to pour from cup to bowl to bowl to cup.
What we talked about
With all my sensory bins I used a mix of open ended questions and parallel talk. (I talk more about this in my book of sensory bins called 60 Exciting Sensory Bin for Curious Kids, look for it on Amazon or in book stores).
Here are some of the questions I asked them:
- “What colour are you mixing?”
- “Can you mix the red and green together?”
- “What are you going to make?”
- “What can we pretend the yellow rice in the cup is?”
Supplies
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- 41 Qt, Clear Sensory Bin (Large) or a IKEA FLISAT Children’s Sensory Table
- Coloured rice (see instruction below)
- IKEA colour bowls
- Colourful silicone cupcake liners
- Spoons
- Whisks
- Colourful cups
- Muffin Tin
- Ice cube tray
How to Make Colored Rice
What You’ll Need
- 1 Cup of White Rice
- 1/2 tsp White Vinegar
- Several Drops of Gel Food Coloring
- Large Ziploc Bags
- Parchment Paper
- Baking Sheets or Tupperware containers
How to Make
- Combine the rice, white vinegar and food coloring in a Ziploc bag.
- Seal it carefully and mix the contents throughly.
- Repeat for each color.
- Lay a sheet of parchment paper on a baking sheet or line a Tupperware container.
- Spread the colored rice out on the parchment paper and allow it to dry overnight.
Troubleshooting
If you don’t have gel food coloring, regular food coloring will work fine. If you want your rice to be more vibrant add more than just a few drops of food coloring and a small amount of white vinegar. Although the instructions calls for 1 cup of rice I usually make between 6-7 cups of rice for a sensory bin.
WILL YOU TRY THIS RAINBOW RICE SENSORY BIN WITH YOUR TODDLER OR PRESCHOOLER? Pin it for later!
