Dying Rice

I seem to be getting this face a lot recently when I tell K to smile so I can take his picture.

We dyed rice today. It's something I've been meaning to do for awhile, but there was always something more fun to do. I am glad that we finally got to it though. Kadin really enjoyed it. Probably because he could do most of it himself. Very simple and it can be used in so many different ways.

All you need is rice (I had some that had expired, which is very odd for us, but I was happy I could use it for something), food coloring, rubbing alcohol and baggies/bowls/containers. I chose to use baggies. I think it's easier to contain what could be a very messy activity. ;) Add rice to the bag, add a few drops of food coloring (although we almost always end up with more than a few) and a few drops of rubbing alcohol. You really don't need much. A little goes a very long way when dying rice. 

Add food coloring and then rubbing alcohol.

And then shake it all together. The best part about using the baggies is they can do this themselves.

I was going to use sandwich bags, but K wanted to use his very special goldfish bags. So we went with that. I wasn't sure if it would make enough because the bags are small, but it's plenty for what we're  using it for. 

He was very excited about making "his own" green. For some reason I have no green food coloring so we decided to try to mix yellow and blue and it worked perfectly.

We ended up with 6 colors.

Laying them all out to dry. I recommend putting plastic bags (or something) underneath them in case you get a little extra color that bleeds through. The black had already bled through 3 layers of paper towels by the time I finished dying the rest.

These are great for learning colorings and making pouring and sensory activities more fun. I'm sure the colored rice will be appearing at least a few times over the next couple of weeks. :)