Looking for a fun, simple way to entertain your little ones?
In our house, we LOVE sensory bins and try to use them often. With Nicholas’ sensory issues, it took us a little bit before he would even go near them but now he usually can’t wait to dig right in!
(As an added bonus, once he started regularly playing with different textures in his sensory bins, it has become so much easier to get him to try new foods and actually eat something more than just dry toast!)
One of the bins he has been playing with a lot lately, which you may remember from our Red Week in Tot School is the colored rice bin.
Scooping, pouring, measuring and driving trucks through his colored rice is one of the activities that has been on repeat for the past 2 weeks or so around here.
Making it for your own little ones is really very simple! All you need is uncooked rice, hand sanitizer, a packet of Kool-Aid and a little bit of food coloring.
Ready to get started? Great, here’s the how to:
What you need:
2 cups uncooked white rice
2 teaspoons hand sanitizer (you could also use rubbing alcohol)
Packet of Kool-Aid (this is completely optional but it adds color as well as the scent)
Food coloring
Instructions:
Combine your rice, hand sanitizer, Kool-Aid (if you decide to use it) and a few drops of food coloring into a large Ziploc bag and shake.
You should have a pretty uniform color after just a few minutes of shaking.
Spread your freshly colored rice out on an aluminum foil lined baking sheet and let it dry. (I usually leave it to dry overnight but it is usually ready to go in about an hour or two.)
And that’s it! See, I told you, super simple and if your little ones are anything like mine, they now have hours of entertainment.
Hey,
Maybe J will like this for sensory play.
Great idea! I’ve been finding so many sensory bin ideas lately and keeping them in my mind to use for when I stop working next month! I can’t wait!
Hey Amber thanks for this tutorial! I pinned it so I can try it out with Eli who also has sensory issues. We’ll be starting OT soon and setting up a sensory diet but we already discussed doing different things like this. Thanks so much!
–Michelle @ The MaMade Diaries