I loved this book & garden themed sensory play idea from Playful Learning. Planting a Rainbow is a new book to me and my group. I immediately bought it on Amazon. What a great color book!
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[PLANTING A RAINBOW] |
This morning we made rainbow rice. I measured out the rice (4 cups) and put it in a Ziploc bag with about 2T of food coloring or liquid water colors (works great!) and 3 T of rubbing alcohol. The kids helped me mix the rice in the bags to spread the color. We put them on pans to dry in the sun. It all dried incredibly fast.
My $1.99 bin from Goodwill. Only thing is, it doesn’t have a lid. I usually throw them out anyway but I probably should have a lid for this box.
I found all these gardening/sand play toys at Michaels, mostly in the dollar section. {I buy a lot of dollar store items and it sure adds it up fast!} 
The child-sized gardening gloves were especially a hit.
Love this activity!
Tondra Denise
Saturday 20th of July 2013
I have been hearing the "food argument" for years now and have come to realize that it is up to us as individuals to be accountable for if/how/when we use food materials. There are many other items people can use if they are opposed to using food. I have found, however, that some of our best activities have been food based. Rice, dry beans, dry pasta, cooked spaghetti noodles, or even food "mistakes". I spilled cornmeal once and it led to 4 weeks of children's activities!
http://tondradenise.blogspot.com/2012/08/i-see-more-first-3-days.html
Oops, but that's not why I stopped by. I came in to say thanks for your rainbow rice inspiration. My daughter's 9th birthday was a hit!!
http://tondradenise.blogspot.com/2013/07/nine-candles.html
Share&Remember
Tuesday 11th of June 2013
In some places & cultures it would not be appropriate to play with rice. Always consider the families you are working with. However, we do not live in Africa. We are not starving. We can buy a bag of rice for $7 and play with it. That is our culture here.
I understand it isn't the same elsewhere. Everyone must do what is appropriate for them. I'm sure Christine is well aware of what she is doing and if it's appropriate for those people are not. Read this article about use of food in the classroom: http://www.teachpreschool.org/discussion-on-food-use-in-the-early-childhood-classroom/
dora gomes
Tuesday 11th of June 2013
I dont want to be negative ..but...when I looked at the rice...it came to my mind that how many people, specially kids of poor countries are starving...and begging for a bowl of rice everyday. Specially I was reading the last comment and was thinking those kids in lot of African countries would love to eat some rice rather than playing with it.
Share&Remember
Tuesday 11th of June 2013
In some places & cultures it would not be appropriate to play with rice. Always consider the families you are working with. However, we do not live in Africa. We are not starving. We can buy a bag of rice for $7 and play with it. That is our culture here.
I understand it isn't the same elsewhere. Everyone must do what is appropriate for them. I'm sure Christine is well aware of what she is doing and if it's appropriate for those people are not. Read this article about use of food in the classroom: http://www.teachpreschool.org/discussion-on-food-use-in-the-early-childhood-classroom/
Christine Dunn
Tuesday 4th of June 2013
Hi! It seems your post is continuing on for a couple of years now- still creating smiles of children everywhere. :) I just ran across your rainbow rice on Pinterest because I'm just starting a school in Tanzania and would love to have the locals create their own toys rather than buy imported plastic stuff. This fits in nicely with that idea as rice is available there. I've created a Pinterest board of these types of projects and yours is one of the first. THANK YOU!!!! The orphans in Africa will LOVE the colors as they are just used to playing in the dirt. www.kilimanjarochildren.org. I'm going back in September and will take pictures of them playing in the rice. SO fun. Thanks again for sharing this with us.
A Lovely Little Addiction
Monday 8th of April 2013
I saw this on pinterest, and ran into your blog. I loved this idea so much that I actually went out and bought stuff to do this. I posted it on my blog, if you wanted to take a look, didn't quite come out as good as yours, I used food coloring. I don't know what you used, yours came out a lot lighter. Also, I don't have the gardening tools and the larger bucket yet. I just was too anxious to wait until i went out and got everything lol
I also gave you the credit you most defiantly deserve! Great Job!! :)
http://www.alovelylittleaddiction.com/2013/04/rainbow-garden.html