How To Make St. Patrick’s Day Colored Rice Sensory Bin

Create a fun St. Patrick’s Day sensory bin with green colored rice and St. Patrick’s Day-themed toys! This easy and budget-friendly activity will keep your kids entertained with creative play ideas and holiday magic!

Looking for a fun, easy, and budget-friendly St. Patrick’s Day activity for the kiddos? Let’s create a festive St. Patrick’s Day sensory bin using dyed green 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 green for an extra festive touch. The setup is so easy!

Why Make a St. Patrick’s Day Sensory Bin?

Sensory bins are always a hit because they’re inexpensive, easy to set up, and kids absolutely love them! Using dyed green rice as a base adds a festive vibe that’s perfect for St. Patrick’s Day.

It’s great for scooping, pouring, and digging, plus it provides a smooth, crunchy texture kids enjoy. Add some St. Patrick’s Day-themed toys, and you’ve got a bin full of holiday 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 the St. Patrick’s Day vibes without even leaving the house—no need to wrangle toddlers into tricky outfits or deal with nap time meltdowns!

How To Create A St. Patrick’s Day 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 St. Patrick’s Day 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.

• 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!
• St. Patrick’s Day Toys: Think plastic gold coins, resin shamrocks, rainbows, pom-poms, or any St. Patrick’s Day themed toys and trinkets. I linked what we used from Amazon, but Target’s Dollar Spot or the Dollar Store are also great places to find inexpensive themed items.
• 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). I used 3 cups of light green and 3 cups of dark green for this one.

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 St. Patrick’s Rice Sensory Bin

Now that we have our green colored rice, its time to set-up your St. Patrick’s Day sensory bin.

1. Fill the Bin

Start by pouring the dyed green rice into your large container or sensory bin. Spread it out evenly, making sure to cover the entire base of the bin. The bright green color will instantly create a festive St. Patrick’s Day vibe.

2. Add St. Patrick’s Toys

Next, it’s time to scatter the St. Patrick-themed toys like plastic gold coins, resin shamrocks, or rainbows 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 St. Patrick’s 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 St. Patrick’s Day sensory fun! They’ll enjoy exploring the textures, sounds, and sights of the bin as they dig, pour, and scoop their way through the rice.

Creative Play Ideas for Your St. Patrick’s Day Rice Sensory Bin

Once the sensory bin is set up, here are a few extra activities to keep the fun going:

1. Leprechaun Treasure Hunt

Bury small gold coins deep in the rice and tell your child they’re hidden treasures from a leprechaun. 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 St. Patrick’s Day words like “Luck” or “Gold.”

3. Fill the Bowl

Give your little one a bowl or cauldron 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 St. Patrick’s Day Rice Sensory Bin

What’s not to love about this St. Patrick’s Day sensory bin? It’s super easy to set up, budget-friendly, and reusable year after year. Once St. Patrick’s Day is over, just store the rice and toys in separate bags, and you’re ready to go again next year. It’s a fun way to create lasting memories with minimal effort!

Whether your kids are hunting for leprechaun treasures or creating their own rainbow magic, this St. Patrick’s Day sensory bin is sure to be a hit!