St. Patrick’s Sensory Bin & Kool-Aid Dyed Rice

I don’t care how much rice I’ve had to clean up since making my first sensory bin, it’s totally worth it! These sensory bins are so much fun to not only play with {I may or may not be talking about myself here}, but they’re also fun to put together! I love how bright and colorful this St. Patrick’s sensory bin is with the Kool-Aid dyed rice. It’s so pretty! And smells delicious. If you read my last sensory bin post, you know I yoinked this idea from my lovely friend Melissa, of Mama Miss. She is a sensory bin genius. And if you follow me on Instagram {if not, you should join me!}, you know she sent me a package full of goodies recently. I got some fun stuff for the bin, but my daughter had other ideas for some of it! We did use the big coins she sent and they are my little one’s favorite part. They’re a good size, so I don’t worry too much about her sticking them in her mouth. But you never know, so we only have supervised play time with our sensory bins.I dyed the rice this time, and it was so flippin’ easy! And quick! It smells good too. Mmmm, lemon-lime! I love the smell of Kool-Aid. I would wear Cherry Kool-Aid perfume if they made it. Anyway, Melissa has a great tutorial on how to dye rice with Kool-Aid! Hop on over to read about it in more detail and why she prefers it to food coloring. I followed her directions and for my small bin, it went a little something like this:

You will need:

• 3 cups white rice
• 3 tsp rubbing alcohol
• 1 1/2 tsp Kool-Aid {1 1/2 packets of Lemon-Lime}
• Gallon Ziploc freezer bag
• Tin Foil

1. Dump rice in a gallon-sized Ziploc bag. Add Kool-Aid. Add rubbing alcohol.

2. Seal the bag and shake it like a polaroid picture until the rice is evenly colored.

3. Let it sit for 15 minutes. Then dump it out on a piece of tin foil and spread it out so it can dry. I forgot to let it sit in the bag and dumped it out right away. Oopsie. Luckily it turned out just fine.

4. Let it dry overnight. It will stick together when it dries. But don't panic. Just break it up into your bin and you’re good to go! You won’t believe how easy it is! It probably takes a whole minute or two to make {minus drying time}. Which is a really good thing, because you'll lose some of your rice to the vacuum cleaner. Especially if your husband is supervising sensory play time. Again, if you follow me on Instagram, you’ll see what I mean!Look at that pretty rice! Isn’t this fun?! I just love these bins so much! And I’m planning an Easter one as we speak! Woo!

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