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A rice sensory bin is an easy bin to set up for a preschool child. We do so much with this type of bin. I have used them in science lessons to fine motor building to a general free play bin! Rice is one of the easiest things to dye to match the bin. Want to read more about my favorite sensory bins for preschoolers, click here!
How to Setup a Rice Sensory Bin
To make your rice sensory bin super fun, you should dye your rice. There are a lot of different ways to do this online, but my favorite and easiest way to do this is with acrylic paint. Now poster paint works too, but doesn’t dry as fast. Add your rice to a ziplock bag and leave some space at the top of the bag. Add some squirts of paint to the rice and zip up the bag! Mix the paint! If it isn’t the right color yet, add more paint! Then pour it onto a piece of wax paper or parchment paper to dry. It should only take a few minutes to dry. I usually mix multiple colors at a time and when I am done with the next color, the first color is dry and ready to pack away. Super easy! Do note, that if it isn’t completely dry it can get on the kid’s hands so I always check it before packing it away or putting it in a bin.
How to Contain the Mess
There are a few ways to contain the mess for a rice sensory bin. The easiest way is to put the bin and your child on a tablecloth or shower curtain. These can be a new cheap one or even an old one you have lying around the house. When they spill rice, which will inevitably happen, all you have to do is fold it up and dump it into the trash. I would make sure your trash is not that full and stick the whole thing into the trash and slowly pull it out holding onto a small corner. This way most of it goes into the trash.
Another quick way to keep the area clean is to put your child and their bin inside a bigger bin. This will mean all you have to do is dump the bigger bin into the trash when done. This only works with small toddlers, but you could also use a small kiddie pool as well.
Once the rice is spilled, have your child help with clean up! They can use a small broom and dustpan. I say if they can make the mess, they can help clean it up! My kids love using the small broom and dustpan to clean up because it is easier on their hands. Also, my favorite vacuum to clean up sensory play is the Dyson V8 Animal 2. If you go over the rice slowly, it will pick it all up! The worst part is that my children usually make such a big mess that I have to charge the vacuum in the middle of cleaning it up.
Rice Sensory Bin Themes
Rice is one of my favorite ones to make into a theme! I have taught about blood in our bodies with a rice sensory bin. I dyed all the rice red (it was a few shades of red, which is nice) to be the red blood cells and then added some clear jewels to be white blood cells. I added some scoops, spoons, and bowls so they could play and explore.
Another way I have used dyed rice is with a Valentine’s Day. Of course, I dyed the rice red and pink (or you can use the same rice as the blood). Add some heart containers and some red and white bowls and a few flowers! I have also added other random Valentine’s Day shapes and stickers (without the sticker exposed) into the bins as well. They can play all the want with it!
Another sensory bin I have done is a Christmas sensory bin with rice. I dyed the rice both red and green and then added in some jingle bells and other random Christmas items I have found around the house and town. I then reused this sensory bin for a watermelon bin in the summer. I added in some black beans and they could make anything watermelon-related.
Learning sensory bins with Rice
Rice is an easy filler for any learning sensory bin. You can use it to hide cards with spelling words or even just letters. They can find the cards and match them to a piece of paper. A great way to incorporate this learning is through my Alphabet Sensory Mats and Bins. You can hide the cards in the rice and have your child find and match all the pictures. As they find the pictures, you can state what the picture is and emphasize the beginning sound of the picture.
You can use funnels and bowls to measure different containers to determine volume. This is fun if they can use a funnel to move the rice from one container to another and compare which one is bigger than the other one.
