Rainbow Rice

I've discovered that Pinterest is an awesome site.  There are so many amazing crafts and activities for toddlers... I want to do them all!  Sometimes I think the activities are more for me than for Oliver!  Rainbow rice and colored pasta intrigued me enough that we made some of our own!  It was fun from start to finish.  Even Calliope had some fun (not with the rice itself, but in the making of the rice).

Let me warn you... if you decide to do this, be prepared for a MESS if this is the first time you have worked with this sort of material/sensory box.  Have a broom or dustbuster handy.  You will need it.  My MIL said that I was "the best mommi" for making rainbow rice.  I told her to remind me of that in 10 years when I'm still finding rice in the corners of our playroom!  

What you need: 

-Rice: I used 2 cups per color and it was plenty

-Food coloring

-Rubbing alcohol (I used vinegar the first time and it is still stinky!)

-Ziploc baggies (I later used glass jars and they worked MUCH better)

-Pans lined with foil

-Container for the finished product

-Scoops, bowls, tubes, funnels...  

What you do:
Place 2 cups of rice in a ziploc baggie.  Add a minimum of 12 drops of food coloring (if mixing colors, use 12 drops of the color that requires more and then add the appropriate number of mixing color).  Add 2 Tbs rubbing alcohol to the baggie, zip and start mixing!  Be careful if you have finger nails as they can snag the bag.  Oliver enjoyed doing the mixing and Calliope loved the noise it made!  Mix until colors are evenly distributed.  Then empty bag onto foil lined pan to dry.  It took only about an hour for our rice to dry.

Our rice before Oliver got his hands in it...

Mixing our rainbow...

Scooping and pouring... and making a mess too!

 Some notes:  The jars below are actually alphabet pasta.  I found that the rice took the colors much faster than the pasta.  If you plan to do pasta, I recommend using airtight jars.  The longer the pasta remains in the jar, the more vibrant the colors.  We left ours overnight, shaking every once in a while.  If you leave the mixture in plastic baggies for long, the plastic will give and you will have a big mess.  If I do this again, I will definitely be using jars and not baggies.  Also, I tried vinegar the first time and it is still so smelly!  The alcohol batch is not smelly at all.