We love a good sensory bin and it had been a while since we had coloured some rice, with valentines day coming up if was the perfect excuse to make up a new invitation to play!!
Suitable for: 2 Years +
Set up: 15 minutes (plus a couple of hours for the rice to dry.)
Resources
To make the rice
- Long grain rice
- Paint to dye the rice
- Mixing bowl
- Spoon
- Baking tray
- Tin foil
To set out the tray
- Dyed Rice
- Playdough cutters
- Tray (I used our inflatable sand tray)
- Origami hearts (optional)
- Scoops and bowls or anything else you would like to add in!
The set up
Pour the desired amount of rice into a mixing bowl, in this activity I used 1kg. Squirt in a little bit of paint and a tea spoon of water and mix it all together, if your rice isn’t fully covered repeat the above instruction until you are happy with the colour. Place some tinfoil on the bottom of your baking tray and spread your coloured rice over the top in a thin layer and leave to dry for a few hours. The rice is likely to stick together but as you run your hand through it it will break up.
Once the rice is dry pour it into your sensory bin along with what ever you want to add and it’s ready to be played with. Once finished the rice can be stored in a container and used time and time again.
Making the Most out of the activity
Explore the tray together and follow your little ones lead, Ayla enjoys filling and emptying containers so I always make sure I have bowls and scoops to hand in our sensory bins. Talk about the texture of the rice, the noise it makes and even the colour.
Learning opportunities
- Communication and Language
- Physical Development
- Mathematics
- Literacy
- Cognitive Development
Expressive Arts and Design