dyeing pasta and rice

I read a lot of sensory play blogs. I love the idea of encouraging exploration and imaginative play with different objects, themes and ideas. One of my favorite sensory play ideas is dyeing pasta and rice. It is super, super easy and creates amazing results!

What you need to dye pasta or rice:

-Pasta or rice

-Food coloring

-Rubbing alcohol

-Plastic baggies that zip

1. Take a plastic baggie and add approximately 1 tbsp of rubbing alcohol.

2. Add food coloring until desired color is achieved (I did between 6-8 in most bags). Squish bag to mix.

3. Add pasta (or rice). We used many types of pasta in our bags. Squish the bags to coat the pasta (or rice) with the colored mixture.

4. Let baggie stand for a few hours or until desired color is achieved. Periodically squish the baggies to coat the pasta.

5. When desired color is reached lay the pasta (or rice) out to dry. We put ours on wax paper on cookie sheets and tucked them in the oven. We have cats and wanted to keep it safe. Let dry overnight.

6. Once the pasta (or rice)  is dry, let the play begin!

We took our pasta and string to make necklaces. We also glued our pasta to paper to make art. I would dump the pasta out and ask him pick up certain colors and put them back in the bin. He enjoyed the challenge.

I put the rice in a plastic tote with shovels, tractors and a little rake and let him go to town. He loves it. We made the pasta and rice over a month ago and he still plays with it daily.

This is one of my favorite projects to date. C loved playing with the textures and colors. We had a lot of fun exploring and playing together.

-K

Please pardon the graininess of the photos. I pulled the all from instagram and my cell phone.