Metallic Rice Halloween Sensory-Bin

Metallic dyed rice Halloween sensory-bin for toddlers and preschoolers to trigger a tactile sense and refine fine motor control, dexterity, and hand-eye coordination.

With this metallic rice and black beans Halloween sensory-bin, children have an opportunity to stimulate visual, olfactory, and tactile senses while refining many essential practical life skills.

Children are Sensorial Explorers From Birth

Sensory relations with their new world define a child’s first developmental interaction: the soothing sound of their mother’s voice, skin-to-skin contact with caregivers, or gripping something for the first time with their fingers.

Through her scientific observations, Dr. Maria Montessori concluded that a child’s sensory experiences begin at birth, and till the age of six, children are passionate sensorial explorers. As children develop, their senses help them investigate, classify, and make sense of the world around them.

That is, they explore and absorb their world through their many senses. So, by offering plenty of opportunities for children to trigger and stimulate their senses, either in isolation or through a multisensorial exploration, children are building life-long synoptical connections, which will be essential for later development.

Download the Dyed Rice Recipe PDF Below

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Metallic Rice Halloween Sensory-Bin

Follow the instructions on how to make the dyed rice and make the following modifications to make the metallic colors: 

1. Once you dye the rice with food coloring, then add Metallic Acrylic Paint. [Food coloring dyes the rice, and the acrylic paint coats it, so it is a two-step process. However, you can skip the food coloring part and substitute food coloring for acrylic paint. Just make sure you keep the ratio of vinegar the same.]
2. Shake the jar to spread the color evenly.
3. Bake the rice at 250 F for 10-15 minutes to facilitate drying and kill any potential bacteria that might reside in the raw grain. 

Optional: After baking, add scented oils. I added lavender to purple rice and orange-scented oil to orange rice. [The scent will eventually dissipate, but storing rice in an airtight jar will help the scent last longer.]

Fine Motor Tools

• metal picker (for olives, pickles, or other condiments)
• bamboo tongs
• olive wood scoop

To keep your “filler” contained, present all sensory play invitations either in a bin, tray, tub, or container. Optional but suggested: line a large mat under the tray for easier cleanup.

Metallic Rice Halloween Sensory-Bin Tutorial

Young children absorb information about how their world works uniquely – through their bodies and sensory systems. The more senses are involved in their early year’s play, the vaster the experience a child gets. So, by helping children understand and control their body, we are helping them begin to explore and understand the world around them.

Senses At Play

So, with this sensory bin, your child is stimulating the following:

• a tactile sense by exploring different textures,
• a visual sense when picking and transferring small objects (hand-eye coordination),
• an olfactory sense while smelling the scented rice,
• an auditory sense when hearing rice and grain drop and resonate with the container’s metal surface.

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Are you struggling with homeschooling? Below are 3 ways I can help you up-level your child’s early years!

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Importance of Sensory Play

Allowing children to explore the world by providing safe and exciting opportunities to interact and absorb using all their senses helps develop a strong foundation for lifelong learning since the world and information are perceived predominantly during early years through senses. Thus, sensory play helps children, besides refining motor skills and triggering the senses, expand language vocabulary, grasp math and science concepts, and develop confidence and patience.

Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn …

Said Xunzi Kuang, Chinese Confucian philosopher, 312-230 BC. 

So, offer little hands to pour, transfer, manipulate, construct, deconstruct, build, and take apart. They are learning and constructing themselves through play. 

Metallic Rice Halloween Sensory-Bin

Children, until about six years old, have a very sensorial relationship with their world. They perceive everything through their senses, and the output goes directly to their brain! Recent research has been supporting multi-sensorial stimulation! It is true that children learn best when they are engaged in what they’re doing! So, offer multi-sensorial small-world invitations to play, learn, and refine motor skills.

Have you ever set up a metallic-dyed rice Halloween sensory bin? Leave a comment if you did.

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For More Halloween Activities …

See here for a Halloween Printable Pack.

For More Sensorial Activities …

See here the Cereal Taste-Safe Tracing Tray.

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