{Play} Magic Rainbow Rice Letters
April 4, 2012 in All Posts, Fun With Food!, Play, Toddler Activities
Making Rainbow Rice has been on my play to-do list since we saw these beautiful images and tutorial at Share & Remember. (She also inspired our Painted Toast Activity).
If you noticed, I did say “my” list, and not “ours,” because frankly, sometimes my own desire to participate in cool preschool activities overtakes any goals I have for teaching and playing with the children.
During the days leading up to St. Patrick’s Day a few weeks back, I thought it would be the perfect time to try it out based on the whole rainbow connection thing.
Jane helped me shake and mix rainbow rice colors in plastic bags and glass jars.
Then we dried the rice at the lowest setting in the oven since it was raining and we couldn’t dry it out in the sun.
When it finally came out, I was seriously dizzy with delight at seeing all the beautiful colors. And what a magnificent feeling when you rake your fingers through the rice and let it run through your fingers!
Jane smelled it during her exploration, too. I suppose you could scent it for an even more vibrant experience.
She enjoyed the feeling of plunging her little hands into the rice and mixing it up with her fingers, but really focused on “cooking” and filling jars with the colorful grains using a spoon.
Instead of just a sensory experience, we incorporated some letter learning, too, with the help of clear glue. The letters appeared like magic!
Jane watched me make some letters “magically” appear and then she tried it on her own. Once she started shaking, she wouldn’t stop!
I found that the simplest patterns turned out the best.
So, that’s draw with your glue, sift on some rainbow rice, and shake, shake, shake off the excess. So easy! This activity would work just as well with numbers or shapes or anything you or your little one can imagine.
What fun have you had with rainbow rice? We’ll be posting a few more activities from this batch over the next few days, but would love more ideas! And stay tuned for a Rainbow Link Party to celebrate April showers’ beautiful rainbows.
LEARN! Alphabet, colors, sensory play
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Chrissy – who has written 426 posts on The Outlaw Mom® Blog - Creative Living in a Conventional World.
Planning to use rainbow rice for little ones to funnel into plastic recycled tea bottles, but will also try some lettering too. Thanks
[…] Magic Rainbow Rice Letters :: Outlaw Mom […]
I love the colored rice-hoping to do this with my son!
It’s so fun - hope you do! And please come back and share your photos on our Facebook page!
these will b great crafts 4 my girls ‘hippie chick’ bday party!
[…] really been getting mileage out of our first batch of Rainbow Rice, which we used to make Magic Rainbow Rice Letters. The opportunities for play and learning are endless with this material, which makes it one of […]
This is so cool! Your colored rice looks fantastic!! We did it for the first time not that long ago and I can’t wait to do it again. Love the letter activity. Great idea!
This looks like so much fun! I’ve featured this post on my blog today as one of my favourites from last week’s Weekly Kid’s Co-Op. Thanks for linking up.
This looks like so much fun. I’ve featured this post on my blog today as one of my favourites from last week’s Weekly Kid’s Co-Op. Thanks for linking up!
[…] there was this fun post about Magic Rainbow Rice Letters from The Outlaw […]
Wow, that is lovely! I’ve never seen rainbow rice before!
Thanks so much for linking to Fun sparks.
Emma xx
I love colored rice and the magic letter idea sounds like so much fun! Thanks for sharing with the kids co-op!
Gorgeous! The magic letter idea is really fun; I know my kids will like this. Pinned it!
Thanks for linking up to Kids Get Crafty! ~Alissa and Maggy
Oh my, your rice turned out FABULOUS! And I love the magic letters you are making! Gorgeous!
Thank you so much for sharing on Kids Get Crafty!
Maggy & Alissa
I *love* this! I’ve done coloured rice with The Boy in a sensory box before, but not thought of using it for letters. Beautifully bright and instructive. I’m off to buy some food colouring tomorrow.
(visiting from Fun Sparks)
I just love this! The colours are awesome and I really want to make some rainbow rice. I shall definitely be giving this a go too!
Thank you for sharing on Family Frolics.
Kerry
x
You totally should! It’s so much fun, but very messy to clean up rice grains off the floor
(Worth it, though!)
I love the magic element in your rainbow rice activity.
It solicited some ooh’s and aah’s, which was fun! Thanks for visiting, Ali
[…] {Play} Magic Rainbow Rice Letters […]
Thats a great use for rainbow rice, ours is getting a bit tired from over play, maybe i could use some of it like this rather than just binning and making a new batch. I love the colours. The neon colours is a great tip. thanks
Definitely use the neon colors for a really bright effect. Although, I just looked in our batch this morning and it fades over time. Still fun, though!
I love this - we have dyed pasta but I’m waiting to do rice to dry in the sun (however you’ve solved that problem) and will have to try some ideas with J and T.
We’ve actually never dyed pasta, just painted it. It’s a lot of fun for the kids, but rubs off if it gets wet. If we waited to dry it out in the sun these past few months, I’m sure it would have taken f-o-r-e-v-e-r. I just set the oven at the lowest temperature possible. It took a few hours, but was better than waiting a few days. Hope you guys get to try it out soon!
Gorgeous! We are rice fanatics and this is one activity we have never tried- The colors came out very vibrant! Sorry for being out of the loop- just getting over sickness! Blah.
I used the neon colors, which is basically all I ever use now since they’re so much brighter. Hope you and the family are feeling better soon!