5 simple Spring sensory play ideas

I love setting up seasonal activities for my children and today I have 5 simple spring sensory play tray ideas for you. I’m sure your toddler or preschool-aged child will love these engaging and fun trays. Not only that, they’re quick to set up and use things you’re already likely to have around the home or that you can source easily. Find more seasonal activities for kids here.

They also all use the same base ingredient, rice dyed green. This means that you can make one batch of green rice and know that you can use it 5 different ways over the coming weeks.

My toddler loves running her hand through rice and I’m sure yours will do. They will also be able to use it for scooping and pouring as well as playing with the items that you add to the rice.  

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Below you’ll find my simple instructions for how to dye rice with food colouring followed by 5 different setup ideas, all suitable for spring fun and learning.  

How to dye rice green for spring sensory play

You will need:

White rice * Green food colouring I use Wiltons as they are so vibrant White vinegar Sandwich bag  

• Add a teaspoon of white vinegar to a sandwich bag of rice (I had about 1kg rice) add a good few drops of food colouring.
• Mix and keep adding more food colouring until you are happy with the colour.
• Spread the rice out in a thin layer on a tray and leave to dry overnight (which should remove the vinegar smell too).
• Your coloured rice is ready to use. Add to a tuff spot or other suitable tray or container (I use this circular tray currently).
• Once finished your rice can be stored in an airtight container to use next time, it will last ages.

5 simple spring sensory bins

Below I’ve created 5 different spring-themed sensory bins that are really quick to set up. I bet you have everything you need already for at least one of these ideas. Other things that you make want to add to any of the trays are * giant tweezers, cups or bowls.  

1 – Easter

To this one, I added:

• Plastic fillable eggs *
• Decorative carrots *
• Mini rabbit decorations *
• Mini chick decorations *
• Flower decorations *  

This one is perfect for around Easter. It uses all those Easter bits and pieces you have hanging around. My daughter loved filling the eggs with rice and the other Easter bits.  

2 – Farm animals

To this one I added:

• Toy farm animals *
• Flower decorations *  

Whilst playing with this one my toddler enjoyed singing Old Macdonald, making the animal noises and making the animals talk to each other.  

3 – rabbits and carrots

To this one, I added:

• Toy rabbits
• Decorative carrots * 

This is a really simple setup but my toddler loved pretending to feed the carrots to the rabbits.  

4 – bugs and butterflies

To this one, I added:

• Flower decorations *
• Toy bugs *
• Decorative butterflies*  

This is a fun bug-themed tray with lots of fun to be had as well as opportunities for learning. As well as exploring the tray freely we talked about the different bugs, counted them and sorted them into piles of butterflies, ladybirds, flowers etc.  

5 – spring flowers

This is probably the most simple of all and is just a variety of decorative flowers. You could even use real flowers like daisies and dandelions from your gardens.  

I hope you have found some ideas to inspire your play this week. If you are looking for more ways to play with coloured rice then you may enjoy this post next.

Find 15 fantastic sensory toys for toddlers here.

Find ideas for keeping messy play, mess-free here – Messy play essentials

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