Colored Rice

In our lesson about ancient China we learned about the importance of rice to the sustainability of the communities in the Yellow River Valley.  As a fun art extension, we decided to dye and make pictures with rice.

The whole process was easy and fun with neat results.  We are saving the left over colored rice for letter tracing or future art projects.

Here are some pictures and basic directions:

--Place 1 cup of long grain white rice in a plastic bag.

--Add 1/2 tsp of vinegar

--Add a few drops of food coloring

--Seal bag

--Knead, shake, and mix the color with the rice.  Add more color if needed.

--Place on sheet of parchment paper in thin layer and let dry for 1-2 hours.

We drew basic pictures, painted glue for where we wanted color and then sprinkled the rice on much like glitter.

The end result was a fun texture piece.  This would be a great activity to talk about color, texture, 3 dimensional, and maybe throw in a little social studies and talk about ancient China's unique crop of rice!