SWH4T$: Rainbow Rice

Rainbow Rice
by: Shizz

I'm sure you've all seen this floating around Pinterest, Rainbow Rice to put in a sensory bin for toddlers to play with. I've been wanting to make this for a while, and Monday was the perfect day since the weather here was 85 degrees and sunny (yup, its still April).



I used this recipe as my guideline :)



I tried to break down the cost by cup of rice, but it wasn't really working, so here is what I paid for everything today (I have leftovers).



1 10 lb bag of white rice: $5.49 (I only used about 1/3 of the bag, I made 12 cups of rice total)

bottle of rubbing alcohol: $1.09

Ziploc bags (sandwich size): $1.00 for 15 (Dollar Store!)

Food coloring: $2.50 for 4 bottles

Plastic container for storage: $1.00 (Dollar Store!)



So that's less than $12 for a fun activity that I could probably make about 8-10 batches from that one bag of rice. Not bad at all!

Step 1: Gather your supplies:

Ingredients listed above,

Wax paper for drying

Disposable gloves (if you hate dye on your hands like I do)

Step 2:

Bag up your rice: 1 cup to a bag

Step 3: Add color

1 T rubbing alcohol + 10-12 drops food coloring

First batch I mixed them in these little bowls, 2nd batch I added

the alcohol and food coloring directly into the bag (much easier)

Step 4:

Squish Squish Squish the bag till all the rice is colored.

Make double sure that your bag is sealed.

Trust me on that one...

Step 5: Dry

Spread out on wax paper in the sun and let dry

I think it took about 30 minutes to dry

Step 6:

PLAY! Dump into a bin, sand/water table, cookie sheet, large bowl,

basically any large container. Add a few utensils, cups or spoons,

and let your toddler go to town!

Jack loved it :) He played with it for about an hour :)

I was worried about the dye coming off on his hands, and I'm

happy to report that there was not one speck of dye on his hands :)