How to make a Rainbow Rice Sensory Bin

Rainbow rice creates an open-ended sensory activity that your children will love! It provides input to many of the sensory systems, and is so versatile.

I chose to make my rainbow rice with nontoxic acrylic paint, as that is what I had available in my home. You could also make rainbow rice with food coloring. Today I will teach you how to make rainbow rice with nontoxic acrylic paint.

Items needed:

• White rice 

• Nontoxic acrylic paint (my paint happened to be in tubes, but it is also found in bottles)

• Quart or gallon sized Ziploc bags, one for each color of rice

• Aluminum foil, parchment paper, or wax paper to lay rice on to dry 

• 6 quart latching plastic bin (you could go with the larger size if you are concerned about spilling rice while playing)

I chose to make six different colors of rice, so I gathered 6 quart sized Ziploc bags. I scooped 2 cups of rice into each bag, and added the nontoxic acrylic paint. If you would like a lighter color, you would add less paint, and the brighter colors require more paint. Next, squish the bag to distribute the paint throughout the rice. I needed to add a few drops of water to thoroughly distribute the paint evenly. Be careful not to add too much water, or else it will take a long time for your rice to dry later on! If you wanted to add essential oils for an olfactory component, you would want to do this now.  After you are satisfied with the color of your rice, pour it out onto either aluminum foil, parchment paper or wax paper to dry. Next, add it to your bin, and play!

Rainbow rice and our senses:

1.  Auditory (sound) - you can hear the rainbow rice’s gentle noise as you move it around in the bin, and let it fall from your fingertips

2.  Visual (see)- clearly rainbow rice is visually stimulating, and beautiful to look at 

3.  Olfactory (smell)- essential oils can be added to the rice. Lavender would create a calming scent of rice, whereas peppermint would be alerting and energizing. Any scent could be added depending on your child's preference 

4.  Tactile (touch) - as you and your child move your hands around in the rice, you receive tactile sensory input from it. You could hide items in the rice, and have your child close their eyes to feel around for the items to provide stereognostic input. 

Different ways to play

The beauty of sensory bins is that they can be used in many different ways. Your child will seek out ways to play with the rainbow race on his/her own. Here are additional ideas about how to play with sensory rice:

-Hide magnetic letters in the rice, and (with eyes closed) have your child find specific letters to write words on a magnetic board. Or your child could just find all the letters in the rice first, and then create words with them on their own. 

-provide funnels and scoops to play with the rice

-spread thin layer of rainbow rice into a shallow pan, and “write” in it with your fingertip for practice writing letters

-pour small amount of rainbow rice into small clear jar, twist the lid on tight, and you have a colorful musical shaker instrument

-glue colored rice pieces in a pattern on paper, or use to fill in a blackline drawing of any object (sea creature, soccer ball, etc)