The rice that I used for the project was originally intended for I Spy jars for my kids. I made the jars, but they were not happy (to put it lightly) to discover that I intended to keep the small animals I had put in the jars in there permanently. So we removed the small plastic animals, built a habitat for them instead, and decided to create a different use for the rice:
We divided the rice into four plastic jars:
Added a few drops of food coloring and a little Purell to each jar, and then shook it up:
And admired the resulting colors:
Then we left them to dry overnight:
And used them for an “art project” the next day – which consisted of Johnny making a Big Mess while Emma carefully glued one grain of rice at a time onto her piece of paper. If I were to do this particular project again, I would have the kids use glue bottles instead of glue sticks – the grains of rice stuck to the glue sticks too easily.
We have a LOT of rice left, so if you have other activities we can use this for, I’d love to hear! I plan to let Emma make a colored rice layer jar, and then to do something with the rice in that once it (inevitably) has been shaken together.
I LOVE this idea! Thank you for sharing it.
Love that idea…my son is 11 but loves art projects :)
I keep meaning to make coloured rice for C to play with. I’d like to make a sensory box – I think she’d have lots of fun with it, even if I have to sweep up rice 5 times a day! lol
The ideas you come up with are amazing. Funny the did not want to have the animals be trapped in the jars forever!
My son likes to pour grains through funnels. But for rice you might need one with a wide passage.
I love what different personalities your kids have! Johnny looks so reckless and wild while Emma is so careful at placing each grain of rice on her paper :) Great idea!
We don’t have school at all next week due to Thanksgiving, so this would be a really fun project to try.
We have made colored rice before using liquid watercolors. D loved playing with it.
Too funny how Johnny and Emma took the rice project. I have no suggestions on using rice – we don’t play with food on principle. I am planning to write a post explaining why.
I’ve wanted to try this for a while. The girls loved when me made rainbow pasta. Great tip about the Purell! Thanks :-)
Silly question and maybe I’m just really bad at reading today, but did you put water in with the food coloring? Or was it just food coloring and purell? Thanks for the great idea!
that looks like lots of fun!love the colors
@Chandra – just food coloring and purell, no water. I was actually surprised at how little food coloring was needed too – that stuff goes a long way!
What a fun and easy way to get kids to eat their rice! :-) Wait, can they eat it? lol
@Lindsey – This rice is not for eating since it is uncooked and has had purell added. You could, however make colored rice for eating by adding a little food coloring to the water before cooking =)
Oh my goodness, you were not kidding about the Big Mess! Too cute. Have you tried a rice tray to draw letters in? This rice is so pretty, and looks like so much fun! M likes to use glue in a bottle and make a design then shake sand on it. I’m sure the rice would work the same way… you’re right that it might be easier than using glue sticks. Also, they could stand things up in the rice jars – feathers, pipecleaners to put beads on… that’s all I’m coming up with. :) Great post!
Wow, I am amazed by Emma’s attention to detail. I did something similar to this a while back using tiny alphabet pasta instead of the rice. We also had a Big Mess every time we pulled them out (Kaia used glue as well to make designs, but she always used the pasta in much larger portions than Emma, and always made a much bigger mess). I finally got so sick of the messes that I threw them out when the kids weren’t watching. :)
That rice is gorgeous! I just might have to make some myself… and then find an excuse for having made it :)
What a fun idea. Johnny really did make a mess!
It turned out so pretty and colorful. I’ll have to try this eventually.
so pretty!
Your colored rice turned out great! We’ll be trying this today for a play date we’re hosting… how fun!
help them to draw a nature scene such as mountains,river,trees etc. and use the colors of rice to paste on each scene. A little water and a little flour makes a great cheap paste. Then let g and g chris see the art work when it is complete. love ya- g and g chris.
help them to draw a nature scene such as mountains,river,trees etc. and use the colors of rice to paste on each scene. A little water and a little flour makes a great cheap paste. Then let g and g chris see the art work when it is complete. love ya- g and g chris.now if I can get this box to send the message.
love how vibrant the colored rice came out.. beautiful!
my son loves ANY activity that we use colored rice in
nadia´s last blog ..Tot School and Monster Tot Pack
So colourful and a lot of fun! :)
sunnymama´s last blog ..Why Love Matters Giveaway
I don’t have any ideas for the rice, but when I was a little girl, a lonnnnnng time ago, in the ’50s (1950s, not 1850s 8-), my mom and a neighbor used to color salad macaroni and then we would string them together to make necklaces and bracelets. We didn’t have Purell back then, but I think they used a mix of food coloring, vinegar and water, like we did for colored eggs before the “invention” of egg dye kits. I’m 63 now, and I still remember those sessions fondly!
Linda