
A Sensory Activity Recipe for Kids
There are many benefits of sensory play for children but encouraging motor skills is one of the best. There’s nothing quite as joyful for a child than digging through a bin of colored rice.
This is my favorite recipe for super easy, super bright dyed rice!
Step 1: Gather your materials
- 10 lb bag of rice
- isopropyl alcohol
- gallon ziploc bags
- gel food coloring (if you want SUPER vibrant rice, you might want two boxes)
Step 2: Prepare
Divide the rice into gallon bags (one for each color you want to make).

Step 3: Color
- Squirt desired amount of food coloring into each bag.
- Add about 1tbs of isopropyl alcohol to each bag.
- Zip the bag and start spreading the color around.
- Add more food coloring if desired.

Step 4: Dry
- Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Carefully dump bags of colored rice onto the cookie sheet.
- Set outside and let dry. (I left mine overnight).
*(Please don’t) taste the rainbow!

Step 5: Enjoy
Once the rice is dry, dump it into a big plastic container. And voila! The easiest, most beautiful sensory rice!
P.S. Do yourself a favor and buy a small broom and dustpan. You will need it.

Made For Me Literacy monthly lesson plans have sensory projects and visual recipes for each of the included 4 weeks of curriculum.
Very cute! Do you put anything in it like letters or objects for them to find? I teach kinder.
I will definitely be going that this year! This will be my first year working with the younger kiddos (K-2) and I know they will LOVE that!
Thank you for your ideas! I’m looking forward to following you!
Thank you for reading, Sue! Hopefully more DIY sensory projects will be happening soon! 😀
I live this idea. I teach first grade. What all do you do with the sensory rice?