I’ve wanted to make Rainbow Rice for the loooongest time, mostly because I think it looks so cool 😂!! It’s also great for sensory bins for young children, and can help them develop pre-writing skills, like learning to form letters. It is, like 99.99% of my DIY projects, quick, easy, and only requires three ingredients: ordinary white rice, vinegar, and food coloring.

Put 1/2 cup white rice in a Ziploc bag or container; I used an old yogurt container I had on hand. I made one color at a time to minimize clean up, rinsing out the container after each batch. You can, of course, make them all at the same time, using several bags or containers at once.

Add 1/4 teaspoon vinegar, and a few drops of food coloring; the more drops you use, the brighter your color will be. (I used about 6 or 7 drops for each color.) Close your Ziploc bag or container and shake well for 20-30 seconds. Add more food coloring if you want, then shake again. Once you’re satisfied with the color, pour the rice into a tray or plate and set aside to dry.

Give the rice several hours to dry; I dyed these in the morning, and left them to dry until the next day.

So what can you do with your rainbow rice? It’s a great sensory bin filler; give little learners spoons, small shovels, cups, or plastic eggs, and just let them scoop and fill the various items. You could double or triple this recipe to make a lot more rice, and then bury different objects in it and have children “dig” for them with plastic spoons. We used some of our rainbow rice as “sprinkles” for play dough ice cream sundaes we made this week.

My Littles (and the big ones too!) also had a blast using the Rainbow Rice to identify and practice writing letters.

What will you do with your rice? Let me know on IG (@thekefar) or in the comments below.

Happy creating!