Rainbow Rice Recipe – How to Dye Rice for Sensory Play

This Rainbow Rice recipe is super-easy to make, provides hours of open-ended play, and is a great screen-free activity for kids (and adults)! Use kitchen gadgets, craft supplies, and MORE for unlimited play ideas! {Gluten-free}

Oh, Spiriteds, where do I even begin? Welcome to one of our favorite screen-free sensory play activities? I don’t even know. Are there actual words to express how much our family enjoys this particular recipe of fun and frivolity? I can’t be certain. But what I can tell you is we LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE this recipe. Yes, love. It is modified from Asia Citro’s priceless book, 150+ Screen-Free Activities for Kids (learn more on her site Fun at Home with Kids). And I don’t know if it’s the vibrant colors or the ease with which we make it or the fact that it lasts forever, but Rainbow Rice for sensory play is where it’s at in our house. Like, the only thing I can say is MAKE THIS. You won’t be disappointed.

Perhaps I already mentioned this, but this rainbow rice recipe is super easy to prepare, and the sensory play possibilities are endless. Even the process of making rainbow rice is sensory play-related. There’s nothing like kneading rice and watercolors in a baggie to get those hand and finger muscles working! Hence, I encourage the girls to help me make our rainbow rice batches.

Let’s dive in and make our own Rainbow Rice recipe! Because it’s just that fun and just that good. Also just that pretty and just that wonderful. ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜💗

Rainbow Rice is

• Easy to make. Just one baggie and two ingredients is easy in my book.
• Gluten-free. I use gluten-free rice I purchase in bulk at Costco.
• Gentle on the skin. I chose Color Splash liquid watercolors from Amazon, and the next time I make a purchase, I’m going bulk sizing on that, too!
• Easy to store. I love this stuff, and it isn’t hard to make. But I don’t want to have to make it all the time. Leave it stored in baggies or airtight containers for repeat use.
• Eye-catching. We’re a visually stimulated family, and color matters, so I went with basic colors in a rainbow fashion.

How to make Rainbow Rice for sensory play

1. First, combine rice and liquid watercolors in a large baggie, then remove all the air, seal the baggie, and knead the ingredients together.
2. After that add more drops of liquid watercolors, if needed.
3. Next, spread rice out onto a cookie sheet or baking pan and then let dry overnight. Or, leave in the baggie and place it outside (with the baggie open) to let it air dry for about 30 minutes to two hours, depending on weather conditions.
4. Finally, once the rice is dry it’s time to PLAY! This rice will keep for a long time if stored in an airtight container.

What can you do with Rainbow Rice?

Once you have Rainbow Rice to play with, the sky is the limit on what you can do with it! Below are some of our favorite sensory activities. But don’t feel like you have to do what we do. Your children will, no doubt, come up with their own ways to play with it! So let them run wild, metaphorically at least.

We use rainbow rice to:

• Learn about cool colors and warm colors
• Explore primary, secondary, and tertiary colors
• Develop fine more skills
• Get used to different textures and kneading the rice in a bin with our bare hands
• Build rice castles, sculptures, and whatever else strikes our fancy

Tools we like to work with include:

• Cups for scooping
• Wood craft sticks for building
• Tweezers and tongs to pick up pieces of rice
• Cookies cutters
• Our bare hands!!!!

We play with rainbow rice:

• In the kitchen on a tarp
• Outdoors, again on a tarp
• Using bowls of various sizes
• In bins with lids (for longer-term storage)

Benefits of sensory play activities

Spiriteds, I am not a doctor, nurse, or occupational therapist, nor do I play any of those on TV. So, I’m no expert. But what knowledge I have uncovered about fine motor skills and child development leads me to believe more is going on here than just playing with food. We strive to help the girls build their hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills/hand-finger strength and this sensory rice recipe is one way we do that. Although they play with utensils, we encourage them to play with their bare hands and to cup the rice (as though getting water by hand from a faucet). According to the book 101 Games and Activities for Children with Autism, Asperger’s, and Sensory Processing Disorder by Tara Delaney, the ability to bend fingers and cup one’s hands is an important fine motor skill. 

You can also learn more about the benefits of sensory play in Goodstart Early Learning’s post, Exploring the Benefits of Sensory Play. The Cleveland Clinic also includes benefits in the post What Is Sensory Play? The Benefits for Your Child and Sensory Play Ideas.

But play is play, so while we encourage freehand play, we also just say play, girls, and enjoy! Rainbow rice bins are not only pretty but also encourage what seems like limitless growth opportunities, and the girls stay enthralled for hours. Seriously, hours. Like, I don’t have to peel anyone off the ceiling (and I include myself in this equation, K-Hubs, too). Everyone just kind of relaxes, and who doesn’t like to relax with pretty rice colors from time to time? Honestly, this rainbow rice recipe is our happy place.

How much Rainbow Rice should you make?

When it comes to making a rainbow rice recipe, I like to have more on hand than I think I’ll need. This makes it easier to portion out between the girls as well as for different types of activities. And it saves me from having to make batches on the fly. Thus, this rainbow rice recipe is for four cups per color. I typically work with six colors, for a total of 24 cups of dyed rice. But if it keeps our energy banks reasonably full, I call it a WIN.

How to store Rainbow Rice when not in use

When we are done with our Rainbow Rice, we store it either in plastic baggies or containers with airtight lids. I can’t tell you exactly how long the rice will last. But I will say I have used the same rice for several weeks. The girls wash their hands before each use, and we wash the tools we use during play after each session.

If you make this recipe for a larger group of kids, you may want to change out your sensory rice more often so germs don’t have as many opportunities to spread.

More sensory play ideas!

If you are in the market for more activities, then check out the recipes for fun below! Also, as a side note, check ingredient lists across the different recipes for fun. You’ll find several recipes use the same ingredients, so you don’t have to start over with supplies each time. AND you can use up materials before they dry out.

• How to Make Galaxy Slime
• DIY Grimm’s Blocks
• How to Dye Wood Blocks (in 4 simple steps!)

Take care, Spiriteds. I’m glad you’re here. ❤️

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