Rainbow Rice

This is what's called a "Sensory Bin". Our theme for the month is Rainbows, so of course the base had to be rainbow coloured! I figured it was a good use for the leftover rainbow rice that Nora and Ella used last week. This picture doesn't show it too well, but there's a fair amount of coloured rice grains in amongst the white. It was very pretty!

Dries really liked making a wee walrus 'swim' through the rice.

He made 'mountains' for the walrus to climb, too.

Addie was most interested in the feel of the rice in her hands. She'd pick up a fistful, crush it up a bit, drop it, then pick up another fistful.

Little Miss Snaggletooth has a go. Her preferred method of involvement was to beat on the rice with a cylindrical block.

Lots of quiet involvement, everyone sharing the space, the rice, and the toys extremely well. They played at this thing for a good 40 minutes. Someone might toddle off for a minute, and return in a bit. All four of them were not there the whole 40 minutes, but any two or three of them were playing with it for that entire time. Quite something!

Addie fills a jar for Ada. (Note the left fist full of rice!)

After he tired of the walrus, Dries moved on to excavation. Did you know you can plow the rice with a block? You can!

Nora was quite taken with the funnel. She was the only one at the table with the fine motor coordination to tackle that on her own, and it absorbed her for quite some while!

The Rainbow Rice Sensory Bin was a big hit, and stayed set up on the toddler table in the kitchen all week. By the end of the week, there was only a smallish drift of rice in the bottom of the bin, and my kitchen floor, despite very frequent sweepings, definitely crunchy in spots. It's a great activity, though, and we'll play in it again next week!