Rainbow rice

I know rainbow rice is all over the blogging world as a fun kids activity, but as we're a new blog we've never posted about it and I thought it might be helpful to others to know how we keep the play going so that this isn't a 5 minute activity, but something that captures the boys attention for a longer.

If you've never made rainbow rice it's basically white rice (whatever grain is cheapest for you) dyed with food colouring.  Some people recommend adding alcohol hand gel or vinegar to help the colour stick, but we just add rice and a few drops of colouring to a sandwich or zip lock bag, squidge it about it a bit until the rice is coloured, let it air dry, then it's ready to play with.

The first way we play is pouring, scooping, spooning etc.  I normally give the boys a few cups, spoons, maybe a funnel and bowl and above Champ is using the water refill jug from the iron (much better use for it!).  This keeps the play going for quite sometime, but when things slow then we swap some of the cups for.....

.... trucks and cars!  What works best are dumper trucks or diggers as they are designed for digging and carrying then the rice can be used as a sand substitute.  That keeps us going longer, but when that gets dull, we bring out.....

..... the cake cases, ice cube trays, cookie cutters etc and go for a bit of 'cooking'.  Whisks, wooden spoons and bowls are always popular as are birthday candles.  I have had many a rice 'birthday cake'!

I gave this a two splat rating as rice always ends up on the floor and we always lose some, but its actually not too messy especially if you're not doing it on carpets.  I then store the rice in a large plastic milk jug, I use the funnel to pour it in, but the jug makes it really easy to pour back out again.

How do you play with rainbow rice?

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