How to Re-Dye Rice for Colorful Sensory Play

Have you ever wondered what do with rice that was used in sensory play once your carefully constructed rainbow of colors has all been mixed together? We try not to throw away materials unnecessarily, so reinventing ways to create sensory bin materials is a great way to get more uses out. It is super easy to do with rice sensory bins which can extend the use of the batch of rice for quite some time. I create this tutorial to show we re-dyed our used sensory rice from an Easter sensory bin to allow us to use it in a new jungle themed sensory bin.

Recommended Grade Level:

Preschool

Kindergarten

Supply List
Coordinating Activities

Materials for the Dyed Rice for Sensory Activities

10 pumps of Purell hand sanitizer
1 small scoop of gel food dye
Gallon-size zip top bag
2 cups of rice

Check out the results!

The pastel rainbow rice below was created from leftover dye from dyeing Easter eggs. We simply used the left over egg dyeing water to create some beautiful pastel rainbow rice.

After the kids played with it, the rice became a beautiful mix of pastels. Which they played with several times.

However, there comes a point when they get bored with playing with the same old rice and it’s time to bring in a new sensory experience.

There is some debate amongst educators on whether or not to use food (especially rice) in sensory play. And while we do fall on the opinion that, while using wisdom, rice can be a great sensory material.

While we do use food materials for sensory play and other learning experiences, we try to be very mindful of storing them properly and using them for as long as possible to reduce food waste. We also often use expired foods from a discount shop that would otherwise be disposed of by a traditional grocery store rather than buying full priced new rice.

That is why being able to redye rice is extra awesome! Turning pastel Easter rice into bold dark jungle rice stretches the usefulness of the rice while keeping things interesting for the kids.

You can use your redyed rice to create all sorts of rice sensory bins!

So tonight, I took the mixed up pastel rainbow rice and created this:

We used this re-dyed rice to create a fun jungle sensory bin with our free printable jungle pretend play set.

To re-dye the rice, I simply repeated the normal method for dyeing rice, but chose some darker colors.

I actually chose some very dark colors, but I think that anything a shade or two darker than the original would work just fine.

How to Re-Dye Rice for Sensory Bins

Materials for Re-Dyeing Rice:

10 pumps of Purell hand sanitizer (or 2 tablespoons vinegar)
1 small scoop of gel food dye
Gallon-size zip top bag
2 cups of rice

Throw it all in a bag, zip the top and mix until all the rice is coated with the dye.

Then set it on a tray to dry. Ours took about 15 minutes to dry.

It’s ready for use in whatever sensory activity you dream up! This is a great way to save money on materials for sensory activities. While rice is relatively inexpensive, I love to get the most out of everything that we use.