Making Our Rice Sensory Bin

04/06/2015

Since having my second daughter in November I have been wanting to have something quick and easy to give to my 2 year old when I’m nursing my daughter or otherwise preoccupied with something else that isn’t just turning on the TV and something that will keep her attention for longer than a minute – for those of you with a two year old I’m sure you know what I mean!

So a couple weeks ago we headed to the dollar store, on a mission to find items for our very first sensor bins. We made 4, all of which I will be sharing – Starting with our rice one.

Now that it is spring my daughter loves to stop and play with all the tiny rocks along the side of the road and in the parking lot – she likes to grab a handful and slowly drop them – do I thought she would love rice. We got a bag and rice and wanted to dye it so it was more visible. To dye the rice we picked a colour – purple and added it to rubbing alcoholWe used rubbing alcohol because the rice won’t absorb it like water. If we were to use water and dye the rice would absorb that water as well as the dye making the rice wet. By using rubbing alcohol the rice only picked up the dye, leaving the rice dry and perfect for a sensory bin.

We added the bag of rice to the dye

And then we let it sit for 2 hours (the longer you let it sit, the more dye it will absorb – so for a lighter colour you won’t let it sit for as long (about an hour) and for a deeper colour you would let it sit for 4+ hours.

Once the rice was the colour we wanted it, we drained out the rubbing alcohol and laid the rice out to dryOnce the rice was dry (a couple hours) we added it to the bin

We had enough rice so there was about 2 inches of rice along the bottom of the bin

We then added some different toys that my daughter can play with in the rice, along with a little shovel and strainer

My daughter loves to use the shovel and bury the animals in the rice. She loves the feel of the rice and picking it up in her hands and slowing dropping it down on the animals (like she does with the small stone on the road – but this is a lot safer!)