Sensory fun with rice!
Toddlers and preschoolers love to pour, scoop and dig into sand, dirt… the list goes on. A fun and not as muddy way to do this is with rice. This isn’t just a messy activity, it’s also teaching them spacial skills, measurement and works on their fine motor abilities!
- Gather your materials. I used a rectangular cake pan, but tupper ware, or even a big bowl will work too, rice, sparkles, and tools to scoop and pour with.
- Pour enough rice to cover the bottom of the pan with at least an inch of rice. I used half white rice and half black rice I found in the bulk section of my market but any rice will do.
- Add sparkles for some glitz! I put in about 1 tablespoon- a little goes a long way.
- Add the tools and start scooping! You can ask them as they are playing about the rice, like what color it is, how it feels, but if they just want to scoop and pour let them. Kids having fun will learn more than one with a pushy mom!
* This activity can get messy especially with little guys who have a harder time keeping the rice over the pan, so I usually do it outside on a nice day.
Other activities
If you have an older child after playing with the rice you can ask them if they would like to help you cook some, kids love to help cook and rice is a fun thing to watch transform as it absorbs the water and goes from hard to soft.
or
Go out for some Asian food and talk about how most Asian cultures eat rice every single day, the way that many people in North America have bread . Oh and no after dinner dishes to worry about either !
CHIC-HANDSOME says
great week
LaDonna says
We just did something similar for my son but instead of using rice I used a few bags of beans that I had up in the cabinet. He loves playing in them with his trucks and such.
Catherine says
We love rice play too, & pasta, lentils & peas… in fact most things in my kitchen store room as used for sensory play 🙂