Coloring White Rice

I decided to dye white rice for the Sensory Table. It's a really simple process, but it's time consuming and takes a while to fully dry. (Click here to learn more about a Sensory Table).

Supplies:

• Bowl
• Spoon
• Spatula
• Measuring Cup
• Tablespoon
• Water
• Food Coloring
• White Rice
• Newspaper
• Plastic Bags (optional)
• Paper Towels (optional)

Directions:

*Yields about 2 cups of rice per mixture*

• Measure 3 Tablespoons of water and pour in bowl
• Squeeze roughly 5-6 drops of food coloring into water.
• Stir with spoon.

• Pour in 1 cup of rice and mix until all coated with color.
• Stir in a 2nd cup of rice and mix until completely coated with color.

•  Place rice on a pile of newspaper to dry.

• Repeat steps to make as many colors of rice as you want!

I think I colored about 30-35 cups of rice. There are 7 colors (red, yellow, green, blue, purple, orange, and brown) and I made each of them twice. When I combined colors to get purple, brown, and orange, I didn't quite get the shades I wanted so I did them again which means I made more than 4 cups of some colors. There's still room in the storage container for more rice, but I think I'll call it good for now!

Storing it so we can use it again and again!

Tips:

• It's best to lay out a LOT of newspaper so it can soak up all the water. I actually put plastic down on my counter (a plastic garbage bag works) and then the newspaper on top of it because I was worried the water would soak through and leave stains on my counter top.
• I put paper towels on top of my newspaper because I found it was a lot easier to get the rice back off once it was dry. It clung to the newspaper a lot more than it did to the paper towels.
• Food Coloring has 4 basic colors: red, yellow, green, and blue. To make orange, mix red and yellow together. To make purple, mix red and blue together. To make brown, mix all of the colors together using more red than the others.
• I recommend using a glass or metal bowl and spoon just in case it stains. It didn't stain my plastic spatula, but I wasn't willing to risk dying my bowls.
• The more drops of food coloring you put in, the darker the colors will be.
• This "recipe" is for two cups of rice. Obviously if you want to make more at a time just add more water and food coloring!
• Let rice dry for several hours before storing away in a storage tote.
• When the rice dries it will form a solid clump. Break the clump apart halfway through the drying process to help it dry faster.
• I always stirred in at least 2 cups of rice, but if there was still water in the bottom of the bowl I would keep adding rice until the water was soaked up.
• By adding more rice until all the water is soaked up, not all the rice gets completely coated. I didn't care because once all the rice is dry and mixed together in the storage tote it won't be noticeable that some are only half coated or what have you. But, to avoid not coating all your rice, only add 1-2 cups of rice, stir for up to 5 minutes to soak up as much water as possible, then drain remaining water out of the bowl before dumping the rice onto the newspaper.

Finished product!

It's super fun to watch her explore something she's never played with before.