Rice doesn’t hold a major risk of suffocating or choking, so preschool activities with rice are safer for toddlers than those that involve dried beans, coins, peas etc.  Your younger preschooler will find these fun and messy, and you’ll love being able to clean the rice quicker and easier than sand!

1. Put some rice in a Ziploc bag, add two or three drops of carious food colors, and let her squish the bag around to mix the colors.
2. Pour a bag of rice in a large tray, give her a scoop and some bowls of various sizes – enough to keep her occupied for a while.
3. Let her pour out rice into separate sized bowls, and see which ones hold the most amount of rice – how many scoops of rice does it take to fill a cup? How many cups does it take to fill a bowl?
4. Give her a bowl of rice, an empty bowl, a funnel, a colander, a spoon, and let her experiment.
5. Pour some rice on the table, and let her make “roads” through it.
6. Make a large pile of rice on the table and let her drop a fistful of rice right on the top. Watch what happens – the rice begins to fall down the sides of the “mountain.”
7. Let her measure bowls, cups and saucers of rice on the kitchen measuring scale.
8. Draw an outline of a letter or numeral, or make some other drawing on a paper, and apply glue to the inside.  Let her use rice to cover the inside of the outline.
9. Fill a small bag or a man’s sock with rice, cut a hole at the toe, and use the falling rice to draw patterns on the ground – letters, numerals, her name.

 Enjoy!