Pumpkin Spice Sensory Rice

Since I found pumpkin spice in the bulk section of our grocery store, we have been setting up all sorts of pumpkin spice sensory play ideas. First, we made pumpkin spice cloud dough. And then yesterday, we made pumpkin spice sensory rice. My son LOVED it so much! We also coloured the rice and threw in little plastic spiders and candy pumpkins. If you’d like to watch a quick video tutorial, please see below. I have also included the instructions for pumpkin spice sensory rice below.

Pumpkin Spice Sensory Rice Tutorial

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What you need

• 3 cups (or more) of white rice
• Zip lock bags or air tight containers
• 2 tsp white vinegar
• 1 tbs pumpkin spice
• Orange food colouring
• Black food colouring
• Candy pumpkins (optional)
• Plastic spiders (optional)
• Bin to play in

What to do

Preheat oven to 300°F. Take 1 1/2 cups of rice and pour it into a bag or container. Then, pour 1 tsp of white vinegar into rice. Add food colouring. Seal bag and shake well. Add more colour if needed, then repeat. Add 1/2 tbs of pumpkin spice. Reseal and shake again. Repeat the whole process with as many colours as you’d like. Then, spread the colours on a lined baking sheet (it doesn’t have to be lined but it makes it so much easier to transfer the rice to the bin). Bake in the oven for approximately ten minutes. This will dry the pumpkin spice sensory rice so much quicker than omitting this step. After ten minutes, remove the rice from the oven and sift to ensure it is completely dried. If not, return to the oven for a couple of minutes. Once totally dried, remove the rice and let cool for about five minutes. Then place the rice in a bin, add toys, spiders, pumpkin candies, or whatever you so choose. Adding a slotted spoon adds some extra fun!

What they’re learning

• All the benefits from sensory play such as cause and effect, physical properties, and rudimentary physics
• Fine motor skills and pincer grip (picking up the spiders and individual grains of rice)
• Hand-eye coordination