How to Dye Rainbow Rice using Food Coloring

Are you looking to up your sensory game up a bit? 

Do you love seeing all the beautifully dyed rice in all kinds of magical colors and you’d like to learn how to make some for your little so they can play? 

Do you already know how to dye rice but maybe are looking for ways you can use it for learning while playing games? 

Then, you’ve come to the right place! 

I’m sharing all there is to know about rainbow rice, the items we use with it, different rainbow rice ideas you can try in conjunction with your rice and so much more! 

Note: Do you want to learn the quickest and easiest ways to dye rice? Here is one of my most favorite ways to color rice! 

Supplies: 

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• Bin

• 1 bag of rice

• Food Coloring

• Vinegar/Rubbing Alcohol/ or Water

• Measuring Spoons

• Measuring Cup

• Zip Loc Bag

• Baking Pan or reusable baking pans for drying

• Parchment Paper

And that is all there is to it. 🙂 

How do you color rainbow rice? 

How do you dye rainbow rice with food coloring and water? 

It’s easy peasy and oh so breezy. 🙂 Here is how to color rainbow rice using food coloring: 

• Add 1 ½ to 2 cups of plain uncooked rice into a zip loc bag. 

• Then insert a few drops of different colored food coloring into each bag you have out.

• Then, you can choose to add ½ tsp of either vinegar, water or rubbing alcohol.  

• Close up the bag tightly leaving the air out. 

• Then, mix it up.

• Once you can see your rice fully coated and colored, you are ready to leave them out to dry. 

• Open your zip loc bags filled with colored rice and add them to a baking pan or reusable baking pan to leave out to dry. 

• It should dry up completely in less than an hour. For a faster dry, leave it to dry under an air vent. 

•  Once fully dry, add them to an empty separate bin to be used for play! 🙂 

How can you color rice with vinegar? 

All you’ll need to color rice with vinegar is 1 ½ to 2 cups of rice, ½ tsp of vinegar and a few drops of food coloring in a bag. 

Mix it up. 

Lay it out to dry. 

And then once it is fully dry, you have made colored rice with vinegar! 🙂 

Can you dye rice with paint?

My most favorite way to dye rice is dyeing rice with paint. 

It is the quickest, easiest, most vibrant rice I have ever made. 

And, its ready in under 10 minutes!
 

To learn how I dye our rice using paint, go here! 🙂 

How do you dye pasta with paint? 

Super easy! 

It is pretty much the same steps we used to dye our rice but in a much easier way. 

There really is no measurements to it. 

Here are the steps to dye pasta with paint: 

• Add uncooked pasta into a zip loc bag or container. 

• Then, add a dab of paint (We use acrylic paint) into you ziploc bag.

• Then add a squirt of hand sanitizer (I like to think this gets things flowing much easier) 

• Close up your bag and shake, shake, shake. 

• Then, leave out to dry. 

• And, your pasta is dyed and ready! 

• Easy Peasy friends! 🙂 

How long does Coloured Rice last?

Coloured rice can last for a couple years if stored correctly. 

We have had our colored rice for about 2 years now and it is still as good as new. 🙂 

What can you do with colored rice? 

Colored rice can be used in so many fun ways. Here are a few ideas: 

• Lego Rice like we did this time around. 

• Made for the seasons such as Easter Rice etc.. 

• For pretend play (ex. Make blue rice as a pretend play ocean mixed with toy ocean animals)

• For sensory play (to read on the benefits of sensory play and over 100 sensory play ideas, check out this post right here.)

• Scooping and Pouring Activity

• Arts and Craft Rice Art

• Fine Motor Play within rice

• Adding your childs squishy toys to your colored rice

• Adding Foam Letters for a fun fishing game of calling out letters

• Adding pom poms for a fun game of call out the pom pom colors and in turn working on fine motor skills by taking them out. 

These are just a few ideas. What other fun colored rice sensory bin ideas can you think of?