A Rice Box is a smaller, table top version of a sandbox. Though messy, a Rice Box can be used indoors or outdoors, and vacuums off a carpet fairly easily.
You will need:
- Rice (20 lb bag works well)
- A table top sized plastic container, preferably with a lid
Good to have:
- Sand toys (shovel, pail, etc)
- Kitchen gear (measuring cups and spoons, whisk, funnels, etc)
The Project:
This project is super, super simple! Pour the uncooked rice into the plastic sandbox-like container, explain the rules to your kids (no throwing the rice in the house, stay on this rug/ at the table, etc) and then hand them any random kitchen gadgets and sandbox toys you can think of! Done! (And you are likely to find that they will play with this for hours on end, and beg to pull it out as often as they can!)
Tips:
- You might want to rinse your rice before putting it in the box. Rice is very dusty, and I found that all our rice toys were coated in the rice dust. Just make sure you dry it again.
- I suggest coloring your rice (see “Colored Rice” in the In the Kitchen section). Dye most (probably about 90%-95% would work best) of the rice one solid color, and use the remaining rice to add a second color. I did a rainbow with equal portions of each color, and was really disappointed to find that it turned a grayish color when you stood a few feet back from the rice. But when I did my smaller patches and just a few pieces of another color accidentally got mixed into one color, it was a very pretty effect.
- I bought a box made by Sterilite from Wal-Mart that measures about 5 ½ inches tall, and is about 16”x23” big. It is PERFECT for a 20 lb bag of rice and fits wonderfully on his small yellow table. My son loves to play in it on the family room floor, on his table, or out on the deck, and it is otherwise happily stored under my couch. The whole project cost about $7 for the rice and $8 for the box… a real bargain for how much my son and his friends LOVE it!!!
PHOTO OP: People are always amazed at the simplicity of this project and the joy it brings to all the kids who play in it!
I did the colored rice with the kids I work with and they fight over who is going to do it first. I don’t have room for more than one big container. They can spend hours playing with it. We have measuring cups, spoons, etc. in the box with the rice and they love it.
I know! My son begs to play in it all the time! I have it on the covered deck right now with a big plastic table cloth under it. I love that I can save most of the rice from the table cloth, but any that gets out of the box just sweeps down the cracks. And seriously, he can play there all day if I let him!