If you are looking for ways to entertain the kiddos this summer, here is one really simple craft project.
Our family went to a community festival last weekend and there was a booth for a daycare center. The center had a simple sandbox set up with colored rice and I could not believe how long our children wanted to sit and play with the rice!
I decided to head right on home and make the exact same thing pronto since they enjoyed playing in it so much.
So this is super simple and very inexpensive to do.
I made colored rice and just set it out to dry in the sun. The girls actually helped me with each color and then once it was dry a few hours later, they sat with buckets and played for ages.
To make the rice could not be easier:
- 4 cups of dry white rice
- 3 tablespoons of vinegar (or use rubbing alcohol)
- 3-6 drops of food coloring (we had Neon McCormick leftover from Easter)
Here are the steps I took- note my little ones are 3 and 4 1/2 years old.
Step 1: Measure 4 cups of rice into Ziploc bags. You can also put them in a bowl. My girls took turns measuring into the bags.
Step 2: Add food coloring and 3 tbl of white vinegar. I used a mason jar and the girls took turns shaking the jar to mix and adding it to the Ziplocs. (Note: Mommy learned a lesson to never, ever leave children unattended with food coloring after she stepped away for seconds to rinse the mason jar between colors.)
You can also just mix this in a small bowl. If the color is not right just add a few more drops of food color to the rice inside the Ziploc- it will mix together fine.
Step 3: Shake that bag like crazy! You want the colors to be nice and even all over the rice. You can see the purple above wasn’t very purple-y so just keep adding more color until you see what you like.
Step 4: And last but not least, let the rice dry out a bit. We left it in the sun for about 2 hours and that seemed fine. You can leave it inside too if the weather isn’t nice.
(And by the way- those little trays are only $1.99 at Target right now in the summer section! I am using them for everything- for the girls rainboots outside, playdoh trays, for snacks… craft projects… Love!)
Step 5: And now you are set! I used some storage tubs we had in the playroom and gave each girl a bunch of random items from the Dollar Spot at Target and from the kitchen. They got spatulas, an egg strainer, plastic cups, measuring spoons… just little things that seemed like it might be fun.
So this was super easy to do and the girls had a great time playing with the rice. I dumped it all back into Ziploc bags to put away for another day once they were finished.
So the price of this entire activity was about $8.00. I got a huge bag of rice from Costco for $8 (this project didn’t even make a dent in that monster bag), we had the food color leftover from Easter and the vinegar as well.
One note if you decide to try this. Rice can supposedly be very harmful to birds- some people say it can kill them and others say it won’t hurt them at all. If you want to be extra safe just lay blankets or old sheets outside to catch the spillover.
We had a picnic blanket out on our grass and then my husband did a once over with the Wet/Dry vac after just to be sure we got it all up. (Little known fact but I do not like birds… they seriously freak me out so we did not want to harm them or encourage them to come for a visit to the backyard.)
This would be a great item to put on your Summer Fun List for the little ones!
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Cool idea! People used to throw rice at weddings (including mine), but it’s not allowed anymore because it’s not good for birds.
FYI that’s an old wives tale about birds and rice. In rice-growing regions, rice is often a staple given to cage birds and poultry, and it doesn’t hurt them a bit.
you can also do this with noodles…all the free pasta we get lol I am a preschool teacher and we make macaroni necklace and lots of fun collages…great to make picture frames for fathers day!!
Cathy,
I have heard both ways but I figure it is probably best to error on the side of no dead birds
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Does_dried_rice_kill_birds
SO cute!! My son is still in the stage of trying to “eat” everything so dont know if we could do this–yet! http://progressiveearlychildhoodeducation.blogspot.com/
has great SIMPLE ideas too. Love simple!
**I thought it was alka-seltzer that did birds in??
Just wondering if this method rubs off on their hands once dry. I have also seen it made by using rubbing alcohol and watercolors. Trying to decide which will come out better but this way is def cheaper. Thanks.
Christi,
I did not have any issues with color rubbing off. My girls have played with this a bunch of times and no problems at all.
Dry rice does kill birds, cooked rice doesn’t. Nice of you to think about the birds, even though you don’t like them.
I own an aviary and am very cautious with Rice, and food for my animals, I have seen rice kill birds. Sad, really. I love the rice idea- going to do this for my 2 year old and 3 year old. 
Great idea! I am always looking for simple but fun things to do with the kids. This one will be a hit.
I just found a Little Tikes sandbox at a yardsale and I HATE sand, but decided I’d fill it with colored rice instead. I’ve got some work ahead of me-not sure how much rice it will take to make enough to fill it at least halfway.
Hi,
Just letting you know that it worked so well!!
My daughter and I had a great time making it. I would recommend this to my friends. Thxs heaps and Byeee 
Rice is not harmful to birds, that is an old wive’s tale!
T. Pike,
As you can see on the post I mentioned that there seems to be conflicting information on that issue. So I would suggest doing what you feel comfortable with.
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