Coloured rice for sensory play

Hello again today has been a baking a resource making kind of day. We made coloured rice ready for tomorrow. I am currently trying to teach my youngest little one her colours. At the moment she likes green and black....everything is green or black.

So I decided we should make some coloured rice for the sand tray. This would be good for her to learn about colours, space and measurement as well as sharing. So here it is our rice..

All you need is:

• a bag of cheap long grain rice
  
• white vinegar
  
• food colouring or colour gels
  
• tea spoon
  
• cup
  
• zip lock bag or container with lid 

Right firstly pour some rice into a cup 

Then pour into a zip lock bag or container. We used a container as it is always good to recycle and we will be doing more rice.
Next add a couple drops of food colouring or a small blob or two of gel colouring. We used gels, I shall add a link where to buy these from at the end. 

Then add 1/2 a tea spoon of vinegar. You can use one tea spoon if you find 1/2 isn't enough. 

Next pop the lid on the tub/close the bag and carefully shake the tub/bag until the rice is all coloured.

Ta darrrrr as you can see mine need a smidge more blue but we liked it. 

Now pour on to a tray that is lined with grease proof paper...we used foil this time as we have run out of grease proof paper. You can then make more of the same colour or different if you want to make a rainbow style sensory tub.

Leave to dry over night and then let the little ones play. 

Ours is currently drying out ready for tomorrow. I hope this is of some use to you.

Here is a link for the gels I bought. I use them for rice, spaghetti and play dough.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colors--8-Icing-Set/dp/B0000CFMU7/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1408646822&sr=8-2&keywords=gel+food+colouring

Sensory bags

Today I was up bright and early to make some resources ready for work. Today I decided to make some sensory bags. Now these are one of my favourite things to make as I love to experiment with the contents to really get the most out of the babies and children I work with. These even entertain my colleagues.

So I grabbed some press lock bags, zip lock are better if you can get them cheap enough. I popped one inside the other to lesson the likely hood of a tear with me working within a nursery. I put a cup of sand and a cup of water inside the inner bag. I removed what air I could, sealed and cello-taped for extra caution. Then closed the outer bag and taped it to a low work surface. I repeated this with hair gel instead of the sand and water and also did one with blue and white paint. The best thing about these are that children can explore activities that they may normally shy away from for fear of getting their hands sticky, dirty.

The children learn sensory, colour mixing, mark making, simple writing skills, textures and so on just from a couple of sandwich bags and your imagination for the contents!

Best to stay clear of pointy objects due to piercing.

I shall add pictures tomorrow to show you some examples.


So there you have a very simple but enjoyable activity from items you may have inside your home already!