Dyed rice for sensory play and crafting

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Recently I saw a really awesome post on how to dye rice using food coloring and rubbing alcohol. I'm a homeschooling mama and I also have a two year old who loves to craft so I decided to try this out and incorporate it into the school day.


It's fairly simple but I did things a little bit differently than the post suggested, mostly because I'm impatient and didn't want to wait for the rice to dry!

Supplies needed for each color
1c. rice
1/2 Tsp rubbing alcohol
food coloring

Preheat oven to 350. In a bowl or ziploc bag add 1/2 tsp rubbing alcohol and 3-4 drops of food coloring. Mix in the rice and shake or stir well. Add coloring in as desired to achieve the exact hue.

Spread the rice out on a cookie sheet and bake for 5 minutes. Allow to cool and store in a clean/dry ziploc bag. This dried the rice out much faster. I'm impatient and got bored that my rice still wasn't dry after 30 minutes. So I resorted to baking it which also conveniently seemed to seal in the color and took away the smell of alcohol!


Mix your colors or keep them separate.


Add some glue to a picture or to construction paper and arrange the rice however you like. It doesn't even have to be perfect! In fact, It's MESSY MESSY MESSY!


Allow the glue to dry a bit and then shake off excess rice. VOILA! It's a masterpiece!!!


You can mix the rice into containers and use for sensory play as well!

Be sure to jump over to Life According to Me to see other fantastic ideas!







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