In the above photo, the children are making space for each other. Had more children arrived, I probably would have pulled the unit away from the wall so that there would be more room. If you’ve spent any time around toddlers and young preschoolers, it’s pretty apparent that they love to scoop and pour. During our Easter theme, I decided to recycle the multi-colored rice from our rainbow unit along with some of the many plastic colorful eggs we have collected over the years. I added a few trays from our Easter bin and, of course, scoops. It’s easily one of our favorite spring sensory bins! You will need:
Uncooked white rice (get the cheap stuff!) White vinegar Icing gels or food coloring: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple Plastic storage bags with zip-lock or slider closure Cookie sheets and paper towels
For each color of rice you will need:
1 cup rice 1 teaspoon white vinegar Icing gel or food coloring Plastic storage bag Cookie sheet lined with paper towels
Directions for each color:
Pour a cup of rice into a bag and add desired amount of icing gel or food coloring. (This depends on how dark you want your color.) Then, add the white vinegar. Pour the white vinegar into the bag with the rice and coloring and seal the bag. Then use your fingers on top of the bag to push and move the rice around, distributing the color. Then, pour the colored rice from the bag onto the paper towel lined cookie sheet. Allow to dry.
Note: If you don’t have 6 cookie sheets, do this in batches. As one color dries, pour the rice into a container and start over with another color. Pour all of your colors into one big container and store until ready to use. The eggs will be opened, rice will be scooped inside, and the eggs might even be closed again to make shakers. (My students always love the sound of egg shakers.) Children can come and go as they wish. I don’t monitor who goes where, nor do I place limits on how many children can be at the sensory bin. There are times when our sensory bin is quite popular and the children need to find space. Most of the time they can manage this on their own, but sometimes (especially during the beginning of the school year), I might need to assist, showing them how to make room for a friend. See more sensory bins »> Collection of Sensory Bins for Year-Round Fun Some ideas:
Tongs Scoops Cups Tweezers Silcone Baking Cups
Watch this »> Favorite Ways to Use the Sensory Bin Plus, this is a great sense-of-touch activity. Our toddlers especially love the feel of rice in their small hands and they love how it sounds as it falls from their hands back into the sensory bin. Usually I change the contents of our sensory bins when I change themes, which is on average two weeks. When finished, I place all the themed pieces back into the theme bin and bag up the rice. I might get one more use of it, or I might discard it.
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