Baby Play with Rice and Cookie Cutters

 

One recent afternoon, I wanted to do a baby activity with yogurt and cookie cutters, but I knew that N would need a change of clothes {and possibly a bath} afterward. I generally don’t have a problem with that, but on that particular day, his nap had run a bit late, and I didn’t want to get into a position where I’d have to hurry around to make it to our afternoon appointment if I could help it.

So I decided to cut down on the mess by making it a rice and cookie cutters activity.

This may not meet everyone’s definition of a low mess activity. Obviously, there’s rice to sweep up when you’re done, but the baby doesn’t get messy, and I don’t consider it a big deal to sweep up {or even vacuum} a bit of rice.

You don’t need a huge amount, either.  Limit it to what you’re comfortable with and have time for!

 

(Baby N was 11 months old.)

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Materials for Baby Play with Rice and Cookie Cutters

• Rice.
• Plastic cookie cutters.
• Cookie sheet or tray to hold the rice.

 

This activity is so simple to set up, making it very easy for it to pass the “play a lot longer than it takes to set up and take down” test 🙂

N didn’t quite know what to make of the rice in the cookie cutters at first. He touched it very carefully a few times

 

 

before deciding it was safe and fun and digging in.

 

 

He spent some time checking out the colorful cookie cutters

 

 

but the rice was definitely the biggest attraction for him.

He dug in with both hands and kept scraping the rice against the cookie sheet to make interesting sounds.

 

 

At one point, he decided to flip the cookie sheet

 

 

then held it with one hand while exploring the rice that was left on it with the other hand. I was pretty impressed 🙂

 

 

He really enjoyed the sounds the rice made! He even picked up a handful of rice and let it drop on the cookie sheet.

 

 

To compare, he also spent some time using both hands to move the rice around on the tiles.

 

 

Overall, N had great fun with this simple sensory activity!

For more sensory fun for babies, click here to read about N’s first experience playing with rice when he was only 5 months old!

 

Has your baby or toddler played with rice before? How did it go? Leave a comment below, I’d love to hear from you!

 

 

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