• Menu
  • Skip to right header navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

Print & Play Club Member Login

The Kindergarten Connection

Ideas and Inspiration for Early Childhood

  • Start Here
  • Meet the Teacher
  • Shop
  • Blog
  • Contact Us
  • Search

Mobile Menu

  • Start Here
  • Meet the Teacher
  • Shop
  • Blog
  • Contact Us
  • Search

Rainbow Rice Addition Sensory Bin

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. View our full disclosure policy here.
Pin136
Share
Tweet
136 Shares

Get hands on with our St Patrick’s Day themed Rainbow Rice Sensory Bin to work on addition equations with your child! This activity works great with small groups of children or for a child to work on individually. Get hands on addition practice with this super fun rainbow rice addition sensory bin! Perfect for March and St. Patrick's Day learning!

Preparing the Rainbow Rice

Materials needed:

  • Rice
  • Food coloring
  • Zip-loc bags
  • White vinegar
  • Trays

Add a cup of rice to a zip-loc bag along with a few drops of food coloring and ¼ teaspoon of vinegar.

Give the bag a vigorous shake until all of the rice is coated in the coloring.

Spread the rice out over a tray and leave to dry for a couple of hours.

Repeat for each of the colors you wish to use in your math addition sensory bin.

Setting up the Addition Sensory Bin

Materials needed:

  • Rainbow rice
  • Golden coins
  • Cotton balls
  • Giant tweezers
  • Dice
  • White board and dry erase pen

Once dry, pour all of the different colored rice into a deep dish or tray and mix it altogether. Add in at least 6 golden coins and 6 cotton balls, lay out the dice, tweezers, white board and dry eraser pen, and you are ready to play!

How to Play

I set up this sensory bin at home for my son to play with after school. I often include a sensory element to our after school activities. This  gives my kids chance to relax and unwind after a busy day and they don’t even notice that they are learning!

I try to include all of my children in as many of our activities as I can, and sensory play is a great way to achieve this. During this activity I was able to set up a smaller bin with the same elements, plus cups and spoons for my youngest to play with, while I helped her big brother with the math element of his sensory bin.

Once Bella was busy giving her fine motor skills a good workout with lots of scooping and pouring in her sensory bin, Freddie began his game with a roll of the dice.

He recorded the number that he had rolled onto his whiteboard (his teacher has asked us to do lots of practice writing out numbers to reinforce what they have been doing in school) and then he took the giant tweezers and removed the corresponding number of golden coins.

Get hands on addition practice with this super fun rainbow rice addition sensory bin! Perfect for March and St. Patrick's Day learning!

He rolled the dice again, and after writing down this number, he used the tweezers to remove the corresponding number of cotton balls.

Get hands on addition practice with this super fun rainbow rice addition sensory bin! Perfect for March and St. Patrick's Day learning!

He now had two sets of items ready to add together.

Get hands on addition practice with this super fun rainbow rice addition sensory bin! Perfect for March and St. Patrick's Day learning!

To work out the sum of the two sets, Freddie lined them all up and moved each item to one side as he counted them all to see how many he had.

He then wrote down the answer to the math equation on his whiteboard ready for me to check.

This sensory addition game is super fun and one your kids are sure to love! To differentiate for your preschooler, have them roll the dice and count out that many objects. For 1st graders, try adding 3 sets of numbers together!

Looking for more addition fun? Grab our popular (and free!) counting bear addition cards or play with blocks with building block addition towers! 

St. Patrick’s Day Resources

Looking for more learning ideas for March? Grab our March printables pack for quick prep, fun activities to have on hand all month long!

[optin-monster-shortcode id=”jk7ftw3mffgp4qmg”]

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Nicola
Nicola is a former Librarian who now spends her time looking after and coming up with arts,crafts and learning ideas for her two sons aged 6 and 8 and daughter aged 3, to enjoy doing together. She share crafts and fun ideas over on Crafty Kids at Home.
Latest posts by Nicola (see all)
  • An Invitation to Plant CVC Words - March 8, 2017
  • Valentine’s Day Love Heart Letter Match - January 24, 2017
  • Making Patterns with Loose Parts Activity - January 5, 2017
Pin136
Share
Tweet
136 Shares

Filed Under: Addition and Subtraction, Rainbows, Sensory Bins and Bottles Tagged With: addition, math games, sensory, sensory bins, St. Patrick's Day

About Nicola

Nicola is a former Librarian who now spends her time looking after and coming up with arts,crafts and learning ideas for her two sons aged 6 and 8 and daughter aged 3, to enjoy doing together. She share crafts and fun ideas over on Crafty Kids at Home.

Previous Post: « Phonemic Awareness – Your Questions Answered
Next Post: Easter Egg CVCe Puzzles »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Shannon

    February 26, 2016 at 4:24 am

    What a fun learning activity! Thanks for allowing me to share in my St. Patrick’s Day Roundup 🙂

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Through the Print and Play Club, her Instagram community , and easy-prep resources for the classroom, Alex helps teachers around the world collaborate, save time, and stress less.

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Categories

Site Footer

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Contact Us | FAQs
Copyright © 2021 · The Kindergarten Connection