Chocolate Rice Recipe for Play

This is one of the many chocolate play recipes we shared last year.  With Valentine's Day right around the corner I pulled our chocolate rice back out, and Rosie and Jewel have been having lots of fun playing with it.  The aroma of chocolate improves mood and stimulates the mind.  Stimulating brain function through scent is fantastic for when children are engaged in learning activities.

Chocolate Rice 

Recipe for Play

For all the best kids activities follow Growing a Jeweled Rose on Pinterest & Facebook.

One of the many things I love about sensory rice is that once you make it you have it for a very long time.  You can easily rotate a variety of rice recipes which helps to keeps kid engaged in activities.  We usually leave a rice recipe out for about a week and then pour it into a zip seal bag and pull out another.  For lots more recipes visit our play recipes collection.

Chocolate Rice Recipe (affiliate links provided)

• Rice
• Chocolate essential oil or chocolate extract
• 1-5 teaspoons of water
• Zip seal bags
• Optional addition- brown food coloring for added color

Sensory rice is so very easy to make.  All you have to do is add the desired amount or rice to a zip seal bag along with a few drops of chocolate oil or extract.  Then add a few teaspoons of water.  The water just helps coat the rice in color.  You want to add enough to saturate the rice with there being little to no water left sitting in the bottom of the bag.  Chocolate extract is brown in color, but you can add extra brown coloring if a richer color is desired.  Seal the bag and mix it well.  Once all the rice is saturated open the bag and allow the rice to dry overnight.  The rice may clump together some as it dries, but it will break apart easily once handled.

Add kitchen gadgets and other fun elements to extend the fun and learning opportunities

As Rosie played we worked on preschool math concepts and reviewed other early learning concepts.  At one point I posed the question of how many hearts were in our sensory bin.  We were both surprised to discover there were 27 hearts total which seemed like quite a lot!  We had heart scoopers, heart bowls, heart cookie cutters, and heart gems, all of which were purchased from Dollar Tree.

Learning Opportunities: Simple addition and subtraction, counting, spatial awareness, the concept of small and big, recognition of shapes, review of colors, and more.  Add varying elements to your rice play to create new learning opportunities.

The scent of chocolate stimulates brain function.  Stimulating the brain during learning activities means that more information will be processed and retained, making the addition of stimulating scents a great teaching tool in early learning.

   

Rosie played with this rice for a very long time the first day we pulled it out.  She loved filling the heart containers and dumping them out to make chocolate rain.  She also opened up her own little sweet shop, with mommy and daddy being the lucky customers.

Click the photos below for more FUN for Kids 

  

Tweet