Rainbow rice is a quick and simple home craft project that's hours of fun for young children. With just a couple of cheap ingredients you can make a tray filled with brightly-coloured rice. From toddlers to pre-teens, kids will love playing with the results. As an extra bonus for all those of you crafting with very young children, rainbow rice is also edible so you don't have to worry about tiny hands putting it in tiny mouths.
I've tested this recipe with my own children, aged 7 and 9. This really is a super simple kids project for any age. Not only did my children help make the rice itself in this tutorial, they also were both instantly mesmerised when I gave them the finished tray of rice to play with. As well as mixing it with a spoon, I gave them a kitchen ladle and some cups and bowls, and they just sat for ages pouring and scooping it between the cups and the tray.
This colourful DIY is part of our crafts for toddlers and young children series. You might also like our guide to the best craft ideas for kids and easy Halloween crafts for kids.
Trigger warning: I will admit that for those of you who like a neat play area, a lot of rice does get spilled along the way! But it's easy enough to sweep up afterwards. I found it much easier to clean up compared to paints or play dough.
What do you need to make rainbow rice?
One of my favourite things about this kids craft is that it is pretty cheap to make and you don't need much to give it a go.
To start off, you'll need a bag of white, long-grain rice. I picked up a budget range bag from my local supermarket. Add a few teaspoons of vinegar to seal the colour and stop it from rubbing off on to fingers, and some food colouring of your choice. Now you're ready to get dying your rice.
I tested the method in this tutorial with a couple of different types of food colouring and learnt a couple of lessons along the way. For the brightest results, I found gel food colouring worked the best. You can get a set of 8 tubes of gel food colouring on Amazon (£9.95) or just pick up the individual colours in your local supermarket.
For best results, use a new tube of gel food colouring. Food colouring can date if it sits in your cupboard too long, and this can lead the colour not to fade as your rice dries.
The last thing you'll need is something to mix the rice in. I used food bags in this tutorial but to save waste you can easily swap these for a Tupperware container. You'll just need to wash it out in between colours.
