Today I’m sharing with you a really fun play activity for toddlers and preschool children – coloured rice sensory play. You might remember me sharing rice sensory play with you a little while ago. Well, it was such a hit with my toddler that we have done it many times since. A couple of weeks back I decided that it was time to dye the rice and do some coloured rice sensory play. It’s really simple to dye rice and I have included the instruction I followed below. Find more Sensory play ideas here.
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You will need:
- Rice White vinegar,
- * Food colouring (I use Wilton)
- * Beakers and bowls (these are Ikea which you can buy through Amazon)
- * Scoops
- * Measuring spoons
- Under bed storage box
How to dye rice
- Add a teaspoon of white vinegar to a sandwich bag of rice (I had about 250g rice per bag) 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 (we use a large storage box).
- Once finished your rice can be stored in an airtight container to use next time.
I used four different coloured food colourings and put the rice in four stripes of different colours in our messy play box (which is an under bed storage box).
I added some scoops, measuring spoons and coloured beakers. Then I let my toddler start playing. The different colours were all soon mixed together but we love the multi-coloured rice just as much. She loved this activity just as much as the last time she played with rice and happily played with it for some time. When she had finished I put the rice back in an airtight container ready for next time.
It keeps really well and already we have used it many times. She is going through a phase of enjoying scooping and transferring things so this activity is perfect. I’m not going to lie, there was some rice all over my kitchen floor but it soon swept up.
Have you tried coloured rice sensory play? If you are looking for more ideas for sensory play – how about a seaside themed play dough? or see a full list of all the sensory play I have shared on the blog here.
Find 15 fantastic sensory toys for toddlers here.
If you enjoyed this, you may also enjoy Rainbow spaghetti sensory play.
For more fantastic things to do outside at home see this post.
Find loads of great ideas for easy rainbow crafts for toddlers.
Find more rainbow activities for kids here.
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my children love playing with the rice that we have. I probably need to colour some more for them
#toddlerapprovetuesday
Lovely sensory play. Love the colours, looks like fun.
Thanks for linking #LetKidsBeKids
We’ve got a box of coloured too that the children love to play with, such great fun for them. #LetKidsBeKids
We love coloured rice – such a nice activity for little ones to practice scooping up and pouring out. And it’s way more pretty than plain rice 🙂
We love rice messy play here too. I have never used vinegar when colouring rice, maybe that is why the colour has faded on mine? #letkidsbekids
Certainly sounds like it could be. Our colours aren’t as bright as I would like but they haven’t faded.
I love doing coloured rice with the little ones. I haven’t done a rainbow of colours yet though, only one colour at a time so far. This look so inviting.
We love the colours and that you’ve match the utensils too! It’s such a great idea to keep little ones occupied X #LetKidsBeKids
what a fab idea! we will defo need to do something like this with Elliott! Thanks for sharing! beautiful photo! Suz x Beauisblue.com
This looks fantastic stuff to play with. I look forward to introducing my daughter to this sensory experience. #LetKidsBeKids
I’ve never tried dying rice this way before – thanks for sharing! #ToddlerApprovedTuesday
We love rice play too, it never seems to get old, both the 4 year old and 1 year old love it. 🙂 x