You may not have thought about how to dye rice until you decide to make a sensory bin for your preschooler! Making colored rice is an easy and fun way to increase the sensory input within your bin. I love how pretty the colored rice looks when it is separated into colors and when the dyed rice mixes up.

Creating visually stimulating colors is not only fun, but easy to do!

How to Dye Rice

Through many attempts I have learned how to colour rice and thought it would be fun to share what I have learned through all those trials and sometimes errors. Here are the easy steps to make colored rice as well as some of my top useful tips for making coloured rice for your sensory bins.

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Supplies Needed

• White rice <–I like to buy white rice in bulk
• liquid food dye or gel food coloring
• hand sanitizer
• Mason jar – You can use plastic storage bags, but I prefer using a Mason jar in order to reduce waste
• Large plastic bin with lid for sensory bin

Directions to Dye Rice

You can either use liquid or gel food color to dye your white rice. To mix and shake the food color smoothly with rice, we will use some hand sanitizer.

If you don’t have hand sanitizer, you can use alcohol.

Basically, you need a medium that will dilute the food coloring and spread it uniformly over the rice when you shake it.

Step 1

Begin by adding a glob or a few drops of food color in the Mason jar.

Step 2

Add a tablespoon of hand sanitizer.

Tip: If you’re using a gel based food color; first stick a chopstick in the middle of the jar to mix the gel and the hand sanitizer together. This will make sure the rice will dye uniformly.

Step 3

Add some cups of rice.

Do not fill the jar up to the brim with rice as you will need some room for mixing. I just filled ¾ of the 1 litre jar with about 3 cups of rice.

Step 4

Shake, shake, shake the rice!

Now this is the fun part! Cover the jar with its lid and shake it until the whole rice is completely coated with the food color.

You can turn the shaking process into a playful game for your kids. Make up a shaking song or dance all over the house as you shake!

Step 5

Pour out the rice into a large bin (preferably one with a cover for easy storage) and let dry.

Step 6

Repeat the process with another color.

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What Order to Dye the Rice

When using multiple colors, it’s best to start with the lightest color so that you don’t have to wash the jar each time you use another color.

Make Fall Colored Rice for an Autumn Sensory Bin

Look for fall colors for inspiration. Reds and yellows from the leaves of the maple tree, brown from the leaves that have floated off the trees, orange from the pumpkins you’ll carve with your children…

Dye the Rice Autumn Colors

As seen in the picture above, we colored rice many autumn shades using food dye. We started with the yellow that turned out a beautiful color of mustard and then several shades of red starting with a pink then adding more color into the purple reds and then several shades of brown.

Place Dyed Rice in Sensory Bin Tub

We then put the different colours of rice into a big tub.

Add Fall Themed Items with Various Textures

Add different kinds of fall paraphernalia such as leaves, cinnamon sticks, kernels, pine cones, and little decorative pumpkins. The goal is to get all sorts of different textures, surfaces and sizes for the kids to explore the sensation of touch within the sensory bin.

Keeping Sensory Bin Play from Being a Big Mess

If your children are playing in the house with the rice, consider spreading a sheet under the bin so that it is easy for you to collect the spilled rice later.

If you want to keep the dyed rice colors separate, consider using smaller shoe box sized bins with just a few cups of coloured rice inside.

If you are creating a large sensory bin with multiple colors of dyed rice, we have found that the larger, shallow bins work best for play and storage. My favorite are the under-bed storage containers to allow the kids enough space to play within the bin and then add the lid and store away for another day!

More Sensory Play Ideas from Kids Activities Blog

• See the picture above, those are our sensory beans that we call rainbow beans that have all sorts of fun scents to increase the sensory input during sensory bin play!
• Over 250 sensory bin ideas for kids all in one place!
• Don’t have time to dye rice? Try our white rice sea themed sensory bin.
• Check out some Halloween sensory play ideas for kids.
• These preschool sensory bins are great fun for all.
• Increase sensory fine motor skills with these awesome ideas.
• These really fun and portable sensory bags are great for even the youngest kid…toddlers love them!
• This dinosaur sensory bin is such a fun idea and is like digging for dinos!
• This edible sensory play is tasty and fun to touch.
• These sensory play ideas are so fun and great for toddlers, preschoolers and older kids as well.

How did you dye rice? What colours did you use for your rice sensory bin? What colors are you going to try with colored rice next?