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Easter Sensory Bin

Make this fun pastel sensory bin to help celebrate the Easter season!
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time10 minutes
Rice drying time2 hours
Servings: 1 bin
Cost: $15

Equipment

  • 1 pair of tongs
  • 1 funnel set
  • 6 ziploc baggies 1 per color of rice
  • 1 cookie sheet

Ingredients

  • 1 16 quart storage bin or 28 quart storage bin 28q works better for younger kids to be able to reach their hands in and play
  • 6 tsp food dye colors of choice, we used a few drops of 6 different colors for our rainbow rice.
  • 3 cups white rice
  • 3 tsp white vinegar
  • 1 piece wax paper
  • mini chicks, chenille bunnies, buckets optional
  • 1 bag plastic easter eggs

Instructions

Dyeing Rainbow Rice

  • Pour 1 cup uncooked white rice (long grain bagged rice works better than boxed Minute rice!) into a plastic baggie and add a few drops of food coloring to the bag. I used gel and it worked great! I was going for a pastel color, so I used less food coloring.
  • Add 1 teaspoon vinegar to the bag and shake until the rice is colored.
  • Dump the colored rice on wax paper (I didn’t have any so I just placed some paper towels on a cookie sheet and called it a day!) and spread it out evenly to dry. I did this before bed so it would be nice and dry by morning, but it usually only takes around an hour to dry. 
  • Once dried, pour each color of rice into a different plastic bag - we did this so we could color sort on the first day of the sensory bin. (I reused the plastic bag I used to mix the rice and food dye).

Assembling Your Bin

  • If you're going to encourage color sorting, keep each color of bag of rice separate until you're wanting to play.
  • Add in your chicks, tongs, buckets and any other accessories for kids to play with. Remember not to overdue it- kids can get overwhelmed with too many options so instead swap things around periodically.

Storing Your Bin

  • To store, we recommend putting the rice back in an airtight container. Stored in an airtight container the rice will keep for years. In a ziploc baggie keep the accessories that are Easter specific together so you can pull them out easily. I like to reuse my bins for other sensory play.