Childhood101

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Sensory Play with Rosemary Rice

At 19 months and 5 1/2 years both my girls enjoy playing with uncooked rice. 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.

Childhood 101 Sensory Rosemary Rice Play Activity

The herb Rosemary 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.

Childhood 101 Sensory Play Activity-Rosemary Rice PlayFirst AJ and I added some colour to our rice. I placed small amounts of rice into a transparent, plastic container and added a few drops of food colouring (in this case, red and blue to make a purple reminiscent of the flowers we see on our Rosemary plants). Then AJ and I took turns shaking the container to distribute the colour and achieved a lovely variegated effect. As we were only using a little colouring the rice stayed quite dry and could be used right away.

Childhood 101 Sensory Rosemary Rice PlayI picked some Rosemary from our garden and removed the leaves from the stems. Then I mixed the Rosemary through our coloured rice. If you don’t grow fresh Rosemary, dried Rosemary would work just as well.

Childhood 101 Sensory Play-Rosemary Rice

I poured the Rosemary 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. A plastic paddle pool works just as well (as I shared when Immy was about the same age AJ is now!)

Childhood 101 Sensory Play Ideas-Rosemary Rice

AJ jumped straight in and had a wonderful time scooping,

Childhood 101 Sensory Play Activity Ideas-Rosemary Rice

and pouring.

Childhood 101- Rosemary Rice Sensory Play

I loved watching her concentration as she worked hard to fill the various containers with the spoon,

Childhood 101 Sensory Play Activity-Rosemary Rice

and to pour from the jug back into the containers.

Childhood 101 Sensory Play Rosemary Rice

She also liked running the rice through her fingers and scooping it with her hands to fill the jug.

Childhood 101 Rosemary Rice Sensory Play

There were invariably spills into the plastic sandpit shell but it was easy to tip the shell to one side and pour the spilt rice back into our container once the play session 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.

The Rosemary rice looked, felt, smelt and sounded wonderful, providing a rich, sensory play experience. The importance of sensory play to brain development in young children is something I have explored further in the latest issue of Play Grow Learn: Big Adventures for Pint-Sized Explorers. The eZine also includes plenty of sensory play activity suggestions for children up to 8 years of age (my all-time favourite is the Rainbow Room!). Head on over to find out more here.

sensory play in Play Grow Learn

What types of sensory play do your children enjoy?



Christie Burnett is an early childhood teacher, presenter, writer and the editor of Childhood 101. More importantly, she is a Mum who believes wholeheartedly in the value of children learning through play, the importance of quality early education, and the togetherness of family.

Read more of Christie's adventures at https://childhood101.com.

Read the comments or scroll down to add your own:

    • Christie Burnett says

      September 30, 2013 at 8:48 AM

      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.

  9. Zooba says

    September 24, 2013 at 10:55 AM

    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.

  10. Ania says

    February 20, 2014 at 12:00 PM

    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!!

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