It's easier than you might imagine
We love a good sensory bin and especially our son. For those of you who are wondering, sensory bins are bins filled with different textures and materials, like rice, sand, beans, or pasta, designed to stimulate your child’s senses through touch and sight.
Our sensory bin is a fantastic way to support our toddler son's urge for discovery while encouraging him to learn through play as we prepare dinner.
We had used uncooked white rice many times with our son’s sensory bin but while scrolling Pinterest, there were colored rice used in other sensory bins. I first thought it was time consuming to do and secondly, I found it was ridiculously expensive to purchase on Etsy.
Then one day, I read How To Make Colored Rice in an article on Pinterest. Boom! Within the next hour, I had successfully completed my own. So, I know you can do it too!
This post is all about how to make rainbow rice.
Materials
- Uncooked white rice
- Baking sheet
- Ziplock bag
- Utensil
- Hand sanitizer or white vinegar
- Food coloring
How to Dye White Rice
Step 1: For each color, you will follow a 1:1 ratio: 1 cup of rice to 1 tablespoon of vinegar or hand sanitizer and pour into Ziplock bag 
For this project, we used 2 cups of and 2 tablespoons of hand sanitizer per color.
Step 2: Pour the colored rice into a Ziplock bag, add food coloring to your liking, then shake!
For this step, I prefer a more pastel-colored rice so I added a few drops and added more color when needed.
Step 3: Once the rice is fully coated, pour out the colored rice onto a cookie sheet, then let dry for 1 hour. Repeat for other colors.
Helpful Tip! Let your freshly colored rice completely dry to prevent molding before storing it in a container.
You are now ready to create an ocean with blue colored rice or a farm with green colored rice! Simple way we can help encourage our kid’s imagination.
How to Store Rainbow Rice
Rainbow rice can be reused and enjoyed for various sensory bins to help promote your child’s imagination and development.
The best way to store rice is in an airtight container in a cool, dry, and dark place. This prevents the rice from moisture or odors.
