How To Make A Colored Rice Easter Sensory Bin
Create a festive Easter sensory bin with Easter colored rice and themed toys! This easy, festive activity will keep your kids entertained with creative play ideas and Easter magic!
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Looking for a fun, easy, and budget-friendly Easter activity for the kiddos? Let’s create a bright and cheerful Easter sensory bin using dyed rainbow rice as the base!
This quick and simple activity uses supplies you can grab from Target’s Dollar Spot (or the Dollar Store if you prefer), and with the help of some basic household ingredients, you can even dye your own rice in pastel rainbow colors for an extra festive touch. The setup is so easy!
Why Make an Easter Sensory Bin?
Sensory bins are always a hit because they’re inexpensive, easy to set up, and kids absolutely love them! Using dyed rainbow rice as a base adds a colorful and exciting vibe that’s perfect for Easter.
It’s great for scooping, pouring, and digging, plus it provides a smooth, crunchy texture kids enjoy. Add some Easter-themed toys, and you’ve got a bin full of festive fun!
Not only do these bins keep kids entertained, but they also help with fine motor skills, sensory exploration, and even a bit of creative storytelling.
Why Seasonal Activities Rock
Holiday-themed activities like this help kids engage with the season, build special memories, and enhance their understanding of the holiday.
Plus, you can enjoy Easter fun without even leaving the house. No need to wrangle toddlers into fancy outfits or deal with sugar-fueled meltdowns!
How To Create An Easter Sensory Bin
What You’ll Need
Before you get started, make sure you have everything prepped and ready to go. The great thing about this Easter sensory bin is how customizable it is, so don’t stress if you don’t have every exact item on this list. You can get creative with what you have on hand. Target’s Dollar Spot or the Dollar Store are also great places to find a variety of inexpensive Easter toys.
- Dyed Rice: You can either make it at home (which I’ll show you how to do in a sec!) or buy colored rice. It’s just as fun to make it as it is to play with it!
- Easter Toys: Any little festive toys like plastic eggs, bunny erasers, butterfly charms, or pom-pom balls
- Silicone Cupcake Liners or Small Bowls
- Scoops and Funnel or Tongs and Tweezers
- Sensory Bin (or any container big enough for your child to play in)
How to Dye Rice (Quick and Easy!)
If you’ve never dyed rice before, you’re in for a treat! It’s SO simple, budget friendly, and takes only a few minutes to prep. Plus, it adds a fun sensory experience before the bin even comes together.
Check out our post on How To Make Rainbow Rice with step-by-step directions, along with helpful tips and tricks for dying rice. Here’s a short version for how you can whip up a batch in no time:
1. Grab some uncooked rice
Go with the budget-friendly kind! You’ll need about 6-8 cups total, depending on the size of your bin.
2. Add food coloring
Divide the rice into ziplock bags, one for each color you want. Squirt a few drops of food coloring into each bag along with a teaspoon of white vinegar or rubbing alcohol per 1 cup of rice (this helps the color set). For this one I used 2 cups for each color: yellow, blue, purple, and pink.
3. Shake it up!
Shake the bags. Let your kids help shake them—this part is really fun! Shake until all the rice is evenly coated in bright color.
4. Spread out the rice to dry
Lay the colored rice on a parchment paper or a baking sheet to dry. It usually takes about 1-2 hours to fully dry, but it’ll be good to go once it feels nice and dry to the touch.
Now, you have beautiful dyed rice! You can store it in an airtight container and use it over and over again for different activities.
How to Set Up Your Easter Rice Sensory Bin
Now that we have our rainbow rice, its time to set-up your Easter sensory bin.
1. Fill the Bin
Start by pouring the dyed rainbow rice into your large container or sensory bin. Spread it out evenly, making sure to cover the entire base of the bin. The texture and look of the colorful rice will instantly create a cheerful, springtime vibe, perfect for Easter play.
2. Add St. Patrick’s Toys
Next, it’s time to bury the Easter-themed toys like bunny erasers, butterfly charms, pom-pom-balls and even plastic eggs into the rice. Hide some toys deeper while keeping others visible to create an element of surprise and discovery.
3. Add Scoops and Tongs
To make the bin even more interactive, toss in some scoops, tongs, funnels and bowls (we used these silicone cupcake liners). These tools encourage kids to practice fine motor skills as they scoop up the rice, use tongs to pick out Easter toys, or pour rice into the bowls.
4. Let Them Play
Now that everything is set up, sit back and watch your kids dive into the festive sensory fun! They’ll enjoy exploring the textures, sounds, and sights of the Easter bin as they dig, pour, and scoop their way through the rice.
Creative Play Ideas for Your Easter Sensory Bin
Once the Easter sensory bin is set up, here are a few extra activities to keep the fun going:
1. Easter Treasure Hunt
Bury small Easter themed toy or trinkets deep in the rice and tell your child their mission is to find them using scoops or tongs. Challenge your kids to find them all.
2. Hide-and-Seek Letters
Bury small letter toys in the rice, and once your child digs them out, they can practice identifying them or spelling out simple Easter words like “Hop” or “Egg.”
3. Fill the Bowl
Give your little one a bowl or jar and challenge them to use tongs or scoops to fill it to the top with rice or toys. This is perfect for practicing fine motor skills and concentration!
4. Scoop and Pour
Include measuring cups, scoops, funnels, and small bowls in the sensory bin for a classic scoop-and-pour activity. Kids can practice transferring the rice from one container to another, experimenting with quantities and different tools.
5. Color Sorting
Scatter small items in matching colors throughout the bin, then challenge your child to sort the items by color into separate bowls or sections. It’s a fun way to reinforce color recognition and sorting skills!
Why We Love This Easter Sensory Bin
What’s not to love about this Easter rice sensory bin? It’s super easy to set up, budget-friendly, and reusable year after year. Once Easter is over, just store the rice and toys in separate bags, and you’re ready to go again next spring. It’s a fun way to create lasting memories with minimal effort!
Whether your kids are on a colorful Easter egg hunt or digging for hidden bunnies, this Easter rice sensory bin is sure to be a hit!
