Coloured Rice

Coloured rice is such a big hit in our house. All the children enjoy it, but none more than Bay. We have done heaps of thing with it since i made it last year but our most popular is playing with plastic animals in it. He also enjoys transferring it with spoons to different containers.

Something I love about the rice is that it's a messy activity, but with such an easy clean up! Two minutes with the vacuum and its all cleaned up, and rice is pretty cheap so wasting the few bits that get vacuumed up isn't a massive deal. However, if your smart, you will remember to sweep/vacuum first so that whatever falls on the floor can go back in the container.

To make some of this wonderful stuff you will need:

• Rice, I used 3 cups per colour and it has lasted ages
• liquid food colouring
• white vinegar, 1 tbsp per colour
• ziplock bags
• large baking trays

The process is so simple. Put the rice in a bag, drop in the vinegar and food colouring, close up the bag and give it a good mix. Add more food colouring until you are happy with the colour and then spread the rice out over they trays.

The rice will take a couple of hours to dry completely. Give it a good mix every now and then as it tends to stick while drying.

Once dry it is safe to be played with. The colour does not rub off and the rice lasts forever :-)