Sensory play with rice is one of two-year-old Lily’s favorite activities! Colored rice is a super easy to make, and I’ve found that it lasts a long time – we only have to sweep/vacuum a little bit after every play session. It’s also a little easier to clean up than my other go-to taste safe sensory play activity for kids. Of course, it’s a different story if you have a kid who up-ends their tray, but my kids just don’t have that personality. So far, at least. We’ll see if number four decides to break the mold…
This time, for example, Lily spent a LONG time just looking at the colors sitting next to each other. Then she asked for cars and marbles, and they sat arranged like this for a while:
Eventually, the cars drove around, thoroughly mixing the pink and green rice. Lily loved feeling both the rice and the larger, smooth marbles slip through her fingers:
As it happens, rice also makes an excellent sandbox for teeny tiny toys! Different day – over two weeks later – but same shirt. And same (lack of) hairdo. She loves her snail shirt. Hairdos, not so much.
Do your kids enjoy playing with colored rice? Do you have other fun sensory activities to recommend?
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
Three girls and none are great fans of “hair-dos”,… more the hair-don’ts :). What they DO like are hairbands with hugs flowers on them. I’d like to make some flat flower harcips with felt sometime soon.
No luck with headbands here so far! I’ve seen some very cute felt hair clips online!
My youngest does have the personality to turn over the rice!! But no matter what we’re doing, he’s probably making a mess, it’s just his curious personality, so we just roll with it!
Even I enjoy playing with rice :)
You’ve really captured that thoughtful look on Lily’s face so beautifully. I love the idea of her taking a moment just to reflect.
My kids have never heard of playing with colored rice.
Because, as you know, they have “that personality.” They would play Mardi Gras with the rice, and fling it all over the kitchen!
My children’s utter absence of “that personality” cracks me up. Of course, I was just like them as a kid, and so was Mike. My siblings were not – and nor are their kids!!!
I think coloring the rice is a great idea! You are so creative! Keep the ideas flowing.
That looks so fun! It seems I always have a bag of rice that some electronic device that took a bath has to sit in for a couple of days. This would be much better than throwing it away…
Sandy
I like how there were two colors of rice, and Lily got the fun of mixing them. I think I would really enjoy doing that if I were I child.
What child wouldn’t love to play with colored rice?
I am going to do this next week…thanks!
We will have it everywhere!
Looks like Lily really enjoys her coloured rice.
We tend to stick to larger pasta pieces (bigger pieces seem to be more manageable than having rice strewn everywhere).
Adding color to the rice is a great idea. I’ll have to try that.
We love sensory boxes. I think my favorite is our giant pasta “jacuzzi”. We have one of those under-the-bed storage bins, and we fill it with pasta, scoops, cups and funnels. We just climb right in and sit IN the pasta! So much fun.
We haven’t done rice sensory play yet, but I am planning to soon. I know my little boy would love to get some of his little cars into something like this. :)
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Great ideas – love em!
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How fun! I’m missing my days with kids young enough for this… We used all sorts of things-rice, lentils, beans. All fun!
This is fun, and Anna always enjoys playing with colored rice when she gets an opportunity. We don’t play with rice at home for 2 reasons. One is an inevitable mess, and another is that I am philosophically against playing with food.
We used rice that turned out to be both a miserable texture and a miserable taste. And in the past we’ve used rice that fell on the floor, etc. I’m against taking food for granted, but I don’t really see a difference between this and playing with small chemically-manufactured, much less eco-friendly toys, or – perhaps a better parallel – play dough.
One of New Kids favorite things is driving cars through trays of grains and beans. I’m not afraid of the mess — that is what vacuum cleaners are for!
I love the picture of the squinkies in the rice!
She LOVES squinkies =)
Looks like fun! My two-year-old often wears the same shirt and the same lack of hairdo, too…
I think your two-year-old and my two-year-old would get along beautifully =)
This is great! I’ve never done this but can see there are so many fun possibilities. I would make my kids play with it outside. They tend to get crazy and messy with pretty much anything.
Outside is a great location for this activity! It’s a little cold here, though =)
OH YOU HAVE to try shaving cream – my kids LOVE it!!!!!!!!!!!! They like to play with colored rice too.
I know! Somehow haven’t been brave enough, which is funny because messes don’t usually intimidate me…
Just put a tarp down, and dunk them in the tub when they are done! You have to try the shaving cream. There is nothing quite like it.
Shaving cream, that’s so much fun. Sadly my kids tend to make big messes of it, so we don’t really do sensory boxes.
Would you believe we’ve never done shaving cream?
Lily is precious with or without a hairdo!
We haven’t done colored rice here…yet, my oldest just walked up and said “Ooo what’s that? can we do that?”
They would love it! It can get messy, depending how kids decide to use it =)
Definitely looks like that provides lots of fun!