Rice Play

My daughter spent a good 20 minutes completely enthralled with the rice, pouring, feeling the rice between her hands, etc.. She had a blast! At one point she tried to climb out of the pool with rice in her hands. I asked her if she was "all done?" She sat right back down and signed "more" then continued on playing! :) MATERIALS

dry rice (beans would work well too)
plastic bowls (I used 3 bowls, 1 lid)
measuring scoops, deep spoons or shovels
dry kiddie pool (for easy clean-up and less mess!)

ACTIVITY

Place toddler in kiddie pool with bowls, scoops and lids.
Show rice, pour it from one bowl to another, place hands in rice and play, place lid on bowl and shake, etc..
Let toddler explore and play. Sometimes with guidance, sometimes without.
Keep a close eye so rice doesn't go in mouth!

* toddler should be able to follow simple directions such as "not in mouth" or "spit it out".

Clean-up is super easy! All I did was move the kiddie pool to the kitchen table and I used my hand to scoop out the rice into a ziplock bag for later use. I then tipped the pool to the side and hand-vacuumed the few rice pieces that were left. Then quickly hand-vacummed the floor where we were playing!