Easter Sensory Bin

No ratings yet

Make this fun pastel sensory bin to help celebrate the Easter season!

Prep Time15

Cook Time10

Rice drying time2

Servings: bin

Cost: $15

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

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).

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.

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.