Rice and Measuring Cups

This is Plain colored rice, but it can be changed up

Do you want to have fun with fall colors, and build your child’s fine motor, cognitive, spacial skills and more? Make some colored rice, add measuring spoons, cups and bowls! It is that easy!

To make colored rice:

You need – rice,  gallon ziplock bags, food color and rubbing alcohol.

What you do – Put 1-2 cups of rice in a ziplock bag. Cover the rice in rubbing alcohol (just enough to coat the rice) add a few drops of food color. Shake it up to coat in color. Let sit, the longer it sits, the darker the color. After you get the color you want, pour out onto paper towels to dry. Repeat with as many colors of your choice.

You can make rice for any holiday color, in your child’s favorite color etc. You can add to it by adding bits of party confetti.

I make sensory tubs for my son out of shallow storage containers, about 4 inches deep and 6-10 quart in size for one child to play with solo.

Add in:

1. Small animals for imaginative open ended play

2. Measuring devices for small motor, spacial skills, eye hand coordination

3. Home items such as bowls, muffin tins, etc for social, role playing “baking like mom or dad”

After a few days/weeks, when you are done with this project, you can store it away with the lid for another time, or empty it out and use the container for a new store-able sensory bin.

Great times to use:

Great times to bring out this activity is when you are cooking dinner, have rainy days or other kitchen tasks (with rice, you want a floor you can sweep, the rice can get stuck in carpet). On a nice day, bring this activity outside and enjoy it in the fresh air.

Don’t want to do a sensory bin? You can keep the colored rice separate and create “sand” type art with the rice.

You need paper, glue and colored rice. This activity is great for a 3 or older child. Just let them explore how they want their picture to look and use the colored rice as their color pallet.

Here is an example I barrowed from http://outsidethepreschoolbox.blogspot.com/2010/10/more-cool-fall-stuff.html