Rainbow Dyed Rice Sensory-Play

Home-made dyed rainbow rice is an amazing tool to refine tactile and visual skills during sensory-play for preschoolers and kindergartners.

Have you tried making a DIY Rainbow Dyed Rice for sensory-play? Colored rice has been our absolute favorite filler! Not only does it refine the sense, but it is also an amazing early years tool for literacy, numeracy, fine motor, and color recognition, as there are a plethora of extensions and activities you can incorporate the dyed rice into.

Why We Love Dyed Rice:

1. The texture of dyed rice feels amazing. And for any child with tactile sensitivity, this is an amazing filler as it’s not sticky, slimy, or mushy, so it is a perfect starter.
2. Dyed rice lasts forever, and it does not require refrigeration.
3. It offers a versatile use! There are so many activities you can use dyed rice for! For example, it is perfect for hiding numbers, letters, puzzle pieces, shapes, animals, etc.

You’ll Need to Make Colored Rice

• white rice (buy in bulk)
• food coloring
• vinegar
• use either a plastic zip-lock bag or a recycled jar to mix it
• a tray to lay dyed rice to dry (you can also place it in the over at low 250F for 15 min to facilitate the drying process)

Rainbow Dyed Rice Sensory-Play

Download Dyed Rice Recipe PDF Below

Rainbow Dyed Rice Sensory-Play Early Years

The sensory play offers many benefits! Besides providing various textures to explore the senses, it also promotes fine motor control, hand-eye coordination and it sparks creative play! In addition, sensory invitations to play promote language development as you describe the texture/ filler using adjectives or point out the spatial relationship between objects using prepositions (in/under/next to).
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Sensory play also stimulates brain growth and cognitive development by building nerve connections within the developing brain’s neural pathways, which triggers a child’s inclination for and ability to complete more complex learning tasks.

Color Sorting Extention

Offer various colorful items to match the colors of the rice.

Color recognition, a child’s ability to recognize different colors, emerges at around 18 months. At the same time, a child begins to notice similarities and differences in shape, size, and texture. Toddlers are like sponges who absorb the information and their environment without conscious effort. So, while the youngest might not understand the concept, they’ll be able to tell the different hues apart. Focus first on primary colors (red, blue, and yellow). Learning secondary colors will come naturally once a child learns primary colors.

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Rice Activities Extension

Fill A Puzzle Frame

If you have an alphabet puzzle frame, offer a child to fill it with rice. This is a great activity to strengthen hand-eye coordination and refine pouring skills.

Seek ~ Unwrap ~ Match

Alternatively, foil wrap each alphabet letter, place them in dyed rice and offer a child to seek and find, unwrap letters and match them to their corresponding slots on a puzzle frame.

Have you tried making a DIY dyed rainbow rice? Leave a comment if you did!

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