12 Colored rice activities for toddlers

Rice play is a great sensory activity. While you can use white rice, kids really love colored rice, so i think it’s worth taking time to color it.

Here’s how I colored it. I took a few large ziplog bags, filled them with rice, added a couple of drops of food coloring, and 1 table spoon of vinegar. Then I zipped the bag and squished until the color was dispersed equally. You can add more coloring if rice is too pale, or more vinegar if it’s hard to spread the coloring. The general rule of thumb is to use 1 table spoon of vinegar for 1 cup of rice. At this point you can also add essential oil to make rice smell beautifully, for example, add some lavender or tangerine essential oil. Then I spread the rice on trays lined with aluminum foil and put them in the oven for 15 minutes at 200 degrees. This helps it dry faster but I still left it out to dry fully overnight.

If you’re afraid the child might put some rice in the mouth while playing, one option is to use organic food coloring. Even though eating raw rice is definitely not recommended, rice is still digestible in case a tiny bit is swallowed. Using organic food coloring is definitely better in that case since it’s made from vegetables. I do have both food colorings at home. I use the organic one for activities where stuff can get in Scarlett’s mouth – for example, I color water blue to do ocean theme water station since Scarlett likes to drink that water with a cup, and I use it for actual food, like cupcake frosting. I use the non organic one for things like colored rice (Scarlett doesn’t try to eat it), for adding color to sensory bottle, etc.

Here are some rice activities that we do:

1.Transferring rice from one container to another.

2.Hiding toys

We hide toys either in a large container of rice or in small cups and look for them. We use these sets of animals: Animal Planet Zipper’s Safari Play Set and Animal Planet Farm Bucket

 

3. Walking on rice.

 

4. Making rice tea.

We fill play teapot with rice and fill cups with it. This rice tea can be served to toys and dolls.

 

5. Making rice rain.

I make salt gestures with rice from low height, and my daughter loves this rice rain. Just make sure to put tablecloth in the area where you are playing for easy clean up.

 

6. Looking for stickers

I put stickers on the bottom of the container and we look for them in the rice.

 

7.Searching for light

I tape a small keychain flashlight underneath the container box and then we are looking for the lights in the rice.
We used these: 5 Pack Mini LED Keychain Flashlight but any lights would work.

8.Making rice art.

Using glue stick, draw a shape on a piece of paper and throw rice on top.

 

9. Mix pasta with rice and sift pasta from rice with strainer.

 

10. Pour rice through a funnel.

 

11. Mix rice with pasta. Pick pasta out of rice and put into a sorter.

 

12. Transfer rice from one container to another using scoopers.

We used scoopers from this set.

 

Benefits of rice play: gross motor skills, fine motor skills, creativity, imagination.