As it gets warmer in the spring and summer, a lot of our themes celebrate the beauty of nature, and one of the many ways we do that is by examining what makes a rainbow. Our rainbow sensory bin accompanies a whole-classroom rainbow theme and lesson plan.

Our kiddos love the scooping, pouring, observing, exploring, touching, feeling and creating that comes with enjoying sensory bins. This one is a particular favorite because of its bright (but not overwhelming) colors and the great variety of touch experiences that it provides.

Rainbow Sensory Bin Ingredients:

• 5-pound bag dry, white rice (alter depending on the size of your container/class)
• Blue liquid watercolor (we used Colorations blue watercolor, purchase on Amazon)
• Length of rainbow-patterned 3/8-inch grosgrain ribbon (purchase on Amazon)
• Cotton balls
• Sparkly pompoms in rainbow colors (purchase on Amazon)
• Recycled laundry detergent caps and scoops
• Optional: Plastic glitter in clear, white and/or silver

Directions: To color the rice, we poured it in a large tray and mixed in the watercolor to coat all of the rice well. Then we let it sit to dry. We stirred periodically over the course of the few days it took to dry.

The watercolor fades to a lighter shade as it dries, so what started out as dark blue rice, faded into a pretty sky blue by the time the rice was dry.

Once dry, we mixed in rainbow-colored items — red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple sparkly pompoms in various sizes and some 3-4 inch cuts of rainbow ribbon. We also threw in a few shakes of clear, white and silver glitter for a little extra sparkle. Then we topped it off with some fluffy cloud-like cotton balls.

For scoopers, we recycled laundry detergent caps and scoops (clean thoroughly before use). We ask our parents to bring in these items as they are done with them.

Other fun items you could add to your rainbow sensory bin:

• Rainbow-colored buttons in assorted shapes
• Rainbow-colored beads
• Ribbon strips in each of the colors of the rainbow
• Plastic vase fillers in rainbow colors
• Strips and crumples of tissue paper in the colors of the rainbow
• Paper shreds or basket fillers in rainbow colors
• Plastic gold coins

Our kiddos love sensory bins, and when we’re done with the unit, we simply pack the contents up into a large ziptop bag and save it for the next time.

For more rainbow-related fun, check out our way cool Rain Cloud Science Experiment!

Tried this? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section!