Shake Your Booty! :: Coloured Rice for Music Shakers

A few weeks back it was my turn to host the Playgroup Activity. Each week the mums in our group bring along something fun for the kids to make or to learn about. We’ve done music, craft, cooking and water play. I decided to do something crafty and we made Music Shakers out of old water bottles and dyed rice.

I dyed the rice beforehand at home and provide the empty bottles so when we got to Group all we had to do was fill empty bottles with the colourful rice and start ‘shaking!” So many mums asked me how l dyed the rice so I thought l’d share how l did it on the blog.

What you need
Rice
Food Dye
Baking Paper
Plastic Containers to Store

Tools

1. Get a cheap bag of rice
2. I used normal food dye from the supermarket.
I used some green, blue, red dye.
3. Set your oven to 180 C
4. Get one large tray & line it with baking paper
5. One large bowl & spoon for mixing

*Don’t use a wooden spoon if you want it to stay a
‘wooden colour’ I used a desert spoon from the cutlery draw.

How To
1. Line tray with baking paper
2. Pop a medium amount of rice in the mixing bowl
3. Pop in a few drops of food dye
4. Mix dye through the rice until all the rice is coated
5. Pour into baking tray & smooth out making sure all the rice is even
6. Put in the hot oven for about 10-15 minutes or until the rice is completely dry
7. Let cool rice cool in ceramic bowls them put into containers

When rice is completely cool you can then place the rice into different shaped clear bottles making a fun, cheap & colourful musical instrument.

Have fun shakin your booty! Shake, Shake, Shake!! Shake your booty!



**Additional Tools**
Clear small water or juice bottles in all shapes & sizes with the labels soaked off
Cheap funnels so the kids can easily pour the rice into the bottles
Colourful electrical tape to tape up the bottle tops of the shakers nice & tight