Colourful Rice and Pasta

Bean loves helping dye rice and pasta. She enjoys stirring the food colouring into the white vinegar or rubbing alcohol base and watching the colour spread out. Then she pours the rice or pasta in and mixes it up with a spoon. I assist at the end to make sure the colour is mixed in evenly.

The recipe is simple:

A few teaspoons or tablespoons of either white vinegar or rubbing alcohol (we used white vinegar with the pasta and rubbing alcohol with the rice, both have the same result and the smell goes away shortly after they dry), depending on how much rice/pasta you plan on dyeing. 

Liquid food colouring (we used the McCormick brand)

Pasta or rice

Coloured rice is fun in sensory bins, but this time we used it with the new CAT construction vehicles we picked up at Target. Munchkin and Bean loved mixing the rice with their hands as well as pushing it around with the backhoes and loaders. 

We use the pasta as a base for our bigger sensory bins. Sometimes we keep the colours separate and do colour themed bins or mix them altogether for a rainbow themed bin. We also use them for colour sorting activities. The coloured penne, and any tube-like pasta, can be used like beads to string them together on thread or pipe cleaners. Penne and farfalle (bow-tie) pasta can be used in caterpillar and butterfly activities. 

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