Colored Rice

I don't remember where I got this idea... so if you know the source let me know!

Colored Rice

The perfect Non-Toxic alternative to glitter for your young artist!

Materials Needed:

- vinegar

- uncooked white rice

- food coloring

- bowls and spoons

Step 1)

- Get a bowl for each color that you want to make

- Put 1 tsp. of vinegar in each bowl

- Put 10 drops of food coloring in each bowl with the vinegar

Step 2)

- Pour 1 c. of rice into each bowl

- Mix until all the grains of rice have absorbed the coloring

Step 3)

- Pour the rice onto cookie sheets (you ca do more than 1 color per sheet, but do not let them touch)

- Bake at 200 degrees for 45 minutes to dry

You can store them in baggies or plastic containers, but I thought it would be easier for the kids to use if I made shakers...

I took some plastic hot chocolate snap-on lids, and cut the drinking hole large enough so that the rice could come out in controlled quantities.

Then I let Cannon color the cups with different markers, so we would know which color was in each cup... he LOVED helping.

I wrote the color on each cup and then colored the lid.  Then we started filling them up.

Cannon was in charge of the green rice...

This was enough fun in and of itself... He spent at least 15 minutes spooning it into the cup, then dumping it out again. We didn't even get around to actually using it that day.

When we did get around to using it, we had a blast... but made a big mess!

We started by coloring a rainbow.

He wasn't that excited to use the glue, so I helped with that part.  We did one color at a time...

He'd dump out a large pile, and then we would sprinkle them over the glue

Then we tried just using the glue without coloring first.

He thought that was pretty cool...

And of course he got distracted and wanted to play with the green rice... again...

All in all it was pretty fun for him.

We only used a small portion of what we had, so I'm sure we'll be doing this again.

And did I mention that the cups fit perfectly into one of those shoe-box sized plastic containers?

Perfect for storage...

We let the pictures dry overnight.  They turned out awesome; definately fridge worthy: