Colored Rice Sensory Experiment

I decided I needed some way to organize all of our activities and "tot school" stuff. So here is what we started back in January. 

"Projects" as they are called in our house happen on a daily basis. I have been seeing colored rice and we decided we had to try it! 

We used this recipe:

Rice

1 tbsp isopropyl alcohol

food coloring

plastic baggies

and lots of shaking.....

It took them a few hours on a pan to dry.... Monkey One (2 1/2 yrs) had a hard time waiting and kept checking on they're progress. We set a timer, this was a great lesson in patience and time!

Checking the rice....

 Finally it was finished, first we layered it, then we mixed it, then added some spoons and measuring cups. I left it at the kitchen counter and she played for at least an hour. We left it out for the day and she returned many more times to play!! Eventually we put it away to save for a later sensory bin!


FYI in the future when we repeated this with rice or pasta, we used vinegar rather than alcohol, We had some trouble with alcohol leaving food coloring to stain our fingers, and we have had better luck with vinegar. It does take longer to dry, we usually leave it out overnight, but fingers and counters stay clean and food coloring FREE!