When I think of St Patrick's Day I think of green everything, shamrocks {or four leaf clovers}, the luck of the Irish and, most importantly, leprechauns hiding at the end of rainbows. It's probably the most whimsical holiday of all!
Is there really a leprechaun hiding at the end of a rainbow? Nobody knows for sure, but I do know there's a pot of gold at the end of this one!
<<< Please note this activity may pose a choking risk to children under 3yrs of age due to small parts. This activity is intended to be done under strict adult supervision >>>
POT OF GOLD AT THE END OF THE RAINBOW SENSORY BIN
To keep the magic of St Paddy's Day alive for my own kids I put together a really simple rainbow themed St Patrick's Day sensory bin. We may not have a leprechaun, but we do have lots of gold!
What you will need
- A shallow tub or tray
- Green sensory rice
- Pot {optional}
For this sensory tray I used a clear fridge tray because I didn't have a huge amount of green rice already made up, but you could use a bigger tray if you had more green rice {keep reading for instructions to make sensory rice}. We had a heap of plastic gold coins left over from a birthday party so I used those as well as the spice jar that I stored them in as the pot of gold. For the rainbow I used a small wooden stacking rainbow we already had, it would also be great with a small Grimms rainbow, or you could even draw a rainbow onto cardboard with some paint sticks and use that. I added in some tweezers and a magnifying glass to make it more interesting to discover the coins, rather than just picking them out with their hands.
HOW TO MAKE GREEN SENSORY RICE
You will need
- 1 cup of rice
- Green food colouring
- White vinegar
- Ziplock sandwich bag
- Baking {parchment} paper
- Baking tray
1. Place rice inside ziplock bag
2. Add a few drops of green food colouring into the bag.
3. Add a cap full of vinegar to the bag.
4. Get as much air out of the bag and seal it.
5. Squish the rice around the bag between your hands until all the rice is evenly coated green.
6. Put some baking paper {or paper towel} onto a flat tray then empty the rice on top and evenly spread it out. Leave rice to dry overnight or for 3-4 hours.
There are so many ways kids can play with this sensory bin. Hide the coins under the rice and get them to use the magnifying glass to search for them. Use the tweezers to pull them out and count them while placing them into the pot. Younger children will enjoy simply scooping and pouring the rice and no doubt throwing it around {let's face it most rice based sensory bins end up this way eventually!}. After you've finished playing read some of these fun leprechaun books to keep the magic going.
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