Sensory Play Idea with Rice & Rosemary
Engage your older toddler or preschooler with sensory play with this freshly scented sensory play idea combining rice and rosemary.
This rosemary rice looks, feels, smells and sounds wonderful, providing one of our most popular sensory play ideas.
For those with older toddlers, or preschool or kindergarten aged children, sensory play is a wonderfully engaging play activity, and there are so many benefits to sensory play.
And uncooked rice is a wonderful medium for sensory play as;
- It feels so interesting as you run it through your fingers or scoop it with your hands,
- It makes wonderful sounds as it is scooped and poured,
- It is safe to taste – though obviously this is not something I encourage. I stay with my toddler and supervise her play carefully for this reason,
- It is easy to clean up – I have some tips for this so be sure to read on,
- It can be readily stored and re-used again and again, and a little goes a long way,
- It is simple to add additional sensory elements to the rice to extend exploratory and learning potential of the sensory play.
How to Make Rosemary Rice for Sensory Play
You will need;
- Uncooked white rice
- Blue and red food coloring (optional)
- Fresh or dried rosemary
First we decided to add some color to our rice. I placed small portions of rice into a transparent, plastic container and added a few drops of food coloring (in this case, red and blue to make a purple reminiscent of the flowers we see on our rosemary plants). Then my toddler and I took turns shaking the container to distribute the color which achieved a lovely, variegated effect.
Rosemary (the herb) grows readily in our garden (and in fact, all around our local area) and we all enjoying picking leaves from our bushes to smell that fabulous, fresh rosemary smell, so I decided it would be wonderfully sensory to add some fresh rosemary to a small tub of rice for use in our rice play.
I picked some rosemary from our garden and we removed the leaves from the stems. We then mixed the rosemary through our rice. If you don’t grow fresh rosemary, dried would work just as well.
I poured the rosemary sensory rice into a clear, plastic tub with low sides and added a large spoon, a collection of small cups, a small bottle and a small jug. Then I placed the tub into our plastic, sandpit shell to help contain the mess. Alternatively, you can play outside and sweep away any spilled rice once you’re done.
Then it was time to play! Scooping…
… and pouring were the top choices of activities!
I loved watching her concentration as she worked hard to fill the various containers with the spoon,
and to pour from the jug back into the containers.
She also liked running the rice through her fingers and scooping it with her hands to fill the jug.
There were invariably spills into the plastic sandpit shell but it was easy to tip the shell to one side and pour any spilled rice back into our play tub once playtime had finished. We also ended up with some rice on the floor after some enthusiastic exploration involving hands being enthusiastically flung around but the shell caught most of it and what did spill over was quickly swept up.
And for those whose little ones enjoy this rice sensory play idea, we have plenty more sensory activities to share! Be sure to click through to see our Best Ideas for Sensory Play for Toddlers, over fifty Sensory Bin Ideas for Kids and 31 Days of Sensory Play Ideas.
For more sensory play ideas;
I love the smell of rosemary — we have a large plant of it just waiting for something special like this to try!
There is something just so nostalgic about the smell of rosemary 🙂
I love rosemary too 🙂 Your purple rice is really beautiful. Looks a bit like wild rice 🙂 My two love playing in rice too although they are decidedly less tidy than AJ!! 🙂
Believe me, there was mess! I had to put the camera down at that stage and provide some gentle reminders about keeping the rice in the tray 🙂
Will try this with my daughter (13 months) as soon she wakes up from her nap! Thank you! 🙂
Have fun!
I bet that smelt wonderful! A lovely idea.
Thanks, Kelly. It has actually been a wonderful activity to bring out whenever AJ needs comforting – I don’t know if it is the rosemary or the rice but it is obviously very calming for her.
How wonderful. The smell must be absolutely divine.
I find it soothing, Kate, which is probably totally ridiculous! LOL
Wish I had your resource when my kids were younger Christie!
That is so kind of you to say, Kelly 🙂
I really love the look and this and will need to remember this when I have an excess of herbs in our garden!
Which herbs do you grow, Rachel? We have had the best result with rosemary, oregano and parsley here – everything else just seems to die or go to seed!
We are growing garlic chives, parsely, oregano, mint, sage and basil 🙂 I no longer grow coriander because it takes over! We grow in a big pot 🙂
What a gorgeous idea, I think my kids will love this. Pinned it.
Thanks, Kylie 🙂
What a great idea! We used to half fill a small plastic bottle with rice and the kids used it as ‘home made maracas’ , when they were dancing. Great idea using the shell pool too, anything that encourages sensory play and is easy to clean up has to be a winner.
Easy clean up is a must-have for me 🙂
Hi – I’m an OT and we used to use sensory rice boxes in all our kids sessions and recently i made one for my daughter with coloured rice and she absolutely loves it. However, I’ve never thought about adding something like rosemary into it, what a great idea! I can’t wait to add it into my box. Thanks for the great ideas!!
So fab, Christie, and I love the way you contain the mess!