Easy DIY Unicorn Sensory Bin
Tutorial for an easy unicorn sensory bin using rice; Plus how to make rainbow rice, dye rice and create a step-by-step sensory experience for your kids
Messy play is fun for kids! Children need to use all 5 of their senses when playing and sensory bins give them that opportunity for hands-on, good time. Sensory tables give kiddos the opportunity to not only see and hear, but to smell and touch (and hopefully not taste, unless they are baking). If you are looking for an activity to get your kids to move their bodies check out this sidewalk chalk obstacle course.
Plus basically every child I’ve ever met is obsessed with unicorns right now, so why not mix sensory play with our favourite mystical animal.
How to dye rice for a sensory table
How to dye rice
Materials:
measuring spoons and measuring cups
Method:
This part is really fun and kids love to help!
Scoop rice into the plastic bags. Be sure to use a measuring cup!
For each cup of rice add 1 tsp of vinegar into the plastic bag.
Add food colouring into the bag of rice and vinegar. You can mix up colours and add however much you like to make it look the way you want. Then shake that bag like a polaroid picture, baby.
Spread the rice onto cookie sheets. I used a different cookie sheet for each colour I made.
Here comes the tricky part… you need to wait 48 hours for the rice to dry. If you play with it before it’s ready it will get moldy! No one likes a moldy sensory table. That’s nasty!
When the rice is coloured and dry it is ready to play with. Now you get to dump it out into a bin, add sparkly stuff and unicorn toys and admire how pretty it is. I picked up some tiny sparkly flowers from the dollar store and mixed those in. You might want to add sequins, buttons or anything else you can find around the house. Add in the measuring cups and let your kids go to town.
Hot Tip:
After a few days or when the novelty of the unicorn bin has worn off, you can change out the toys in the rice bin for something else. I took out the unicorn toys and added in silicone muffin cups and birthday candles and my kids were pumped to have a whole other way to play with their dyed rice. #momwin
You can also try other unicorn crafts like this unicorn toilet paper roll craft or my easy 2-step mermaid sensory bin. My kids LOVED it.
Have you dyed rice before for a sensory experience? Comment below!
- Breyen
Follow me on Instagram @ouimadamewee
