Valentine's Day Activity for the Pre-School Set

Yogi isn't ready for a whole lot in the way of crafts, but I couldn't let Valentine's Day go by without doing some kind of activity with a theme. 


I LOVE a theme.  And I LOVE Valentine's Day.  Kate thinks it's a ridiculous holiday imposed by a greeting card company, but I think it's a great excuse for finding creative ways to show people how much you love them and eating desert without guilt.  A win-win.  


This year I decided to make a Valentine version of a sensory box.  I had never heard of a sensory box until I started reading kiddie blogs, but after reading a bit about them and seeing how much fun Yogi is having with it, I'm hooked.  We will definitely be making more of these.  


If you're interested in the thinking behind sensory bins, read this.


Here's how we made ours.


MATERIALS


2 gallon-sized Ziplock bags
3 bags of white rice
Red food coloring
1 relatively shallow box with a wide base
Assorted small cups and measuring spoons 


INSTRUCTIONS


1. Pour all of your rice into a Ziplock bag and drop in about 10 drops of food coloring. You can do more or less depending on how red you would like your rice.  As you can see from the picture, ours was a bit on the pink side.


2. Seal carefully.  If you are super cautious, you might want to double bag.  I did.  ;)


3. Roll the rice bag around on the floor, giving the rice the chance to soak up the color.  Yogi loved this part and entertained himself with that bag for quite some time.


4. Allow rice to dry in the bag for a few hours.  We dyed the rice before dinnertime one night and got it out to play the next morning.  


5. Dump the rice into the box.  Play!


Yogi was really enthusiastic about this activity and when I explained that we needed to keep the rice in the box he was pretty careful.  There was certainly sweeping afterwards, but it wasn't a huge disaster.  I spent the first few minutes encouraging him to touch the rice and run it through his fingers, showing him how to pour from one cup to another and scoop up small amounts with the measuring spoons.  We played together for the most part, but I'm thinking this is something he might do quite happily while I was doing something else (making dinner) close by.  This little box kept him engaged for almost an hour.