Coloured Rice Play

Developing fine motor skills through play & learning about colours using RICE.

Dimples knows his colours very well, with the exception of green (its always blue) so I made some blue & green rice in the hope that he would be able to differentiate green from blue by the end of the activity. Using 2 large saucepans I soaked uncooked rice in a small amount of water & blue/green food dye, I only put it in for half an hour and then poured it into the drainer & onto paper towl to dry.

Blue into one dish, green into the other & for the fun of it, another dish with unpopped corn.  You can usually buy a bulk no-name pack of this at the supermarket for a dollar, the same goes with rice it is possible to get cheap non-brand bulk packs for a couple of dollars and this can provide lots of fun so its worth it.

I gave Dimples a range of items to play with that would help him with fine motor, eye hand coordination and manipulation of objects -

 Including a measuring cup, a funnel, a cup a bowl, a plastic container & lid, tongs, 3 different sized spoons, a bucket, a spade & A home made funnel made from a half a plastic bottle & some pipe.

This home made funnel was a favourite and it worked well.

He experimented with each object and filled the bowls and cups up, he experimented with the funnels and found that the corn wouldn't flow through the smaller one without being shaken about. 

Then he found out he could unscrew the lid off the plastic container, fill it up and shake it to make a maraca musical instrument. It was lots of fun.

It wasn't long before all the colours were mixed around and he was telling me that the green is the same colour as the tongs, the grass and the tree's and the blue was the colour of the bowls.

He did well using the smallest of spoons and scooping up corn from the furthest bowl and carefully, steadily bring it over to his cup so he didn't spill any.

By the end of the play he had used every utensil in every way and then decided to feel around, letting the rice fall through his fingers. We were out in the yard so I let him go & before too long he was throwing it around!

We will definitely do it again with some different colours and different tools.