How To Make Rainbow Chickpeas

Have you ever explored the benefits of sensory play in children? And thought, I might make some rainbow chickpeas. I have!

Children use their five senses – Sight, Smell, Hearing, Taste and Touch – to explore and make sense of the world around them. Learning through play and exploration comes naturally to children allowing them to develop an understanding of their skills. Therefore, sensory play is an integral part in development and brain development. From a very young age we can encourage our babies to develop through their five senses.

As children grow the sensory education can be built into some really fun, entertaining and stimulating activities and my RAINBOW CHICKPEAS is a firm favourite, and SO easy to make (click here to watch the video!)

What you’ll need:

• Zip lock bags
• Chickpeas
• Poster paint or food colouring

Then, to make them:

1. Measure out two cups of dry chickpeas into each zip lock bag
2. Add your paint colours of choice, one to each bag
3. Seal the bag and squish, shake and mix until all chickpeas are covered
4. Pour onto a baking tray to dry (chickpeas dry very quickly)
5. Once dry PLAY, PLAY PLAY!

 

Little hands simply can’t resist playing and they make an excellent filler for the sensory bin and for small world play. There so many ideas for play with dyed chickpeas. Feed for farm animals, a chickpea construction site, they could be arctic snow for a snow filled adventure, a land under the sea for a secret mermaid or a wild pirate, thousands of tiny planets for a trip to space, fresh green grass for a dinosaur exploration, a magical unicorn wonderland. As it turns out, Rainbow Chickpeas are quite versatile. No doubt your little ones will find a whole lot more ways to play with them too. That’s a whole lot of fun in one small tub.

Sensory play is such a wonderful journey for your child. It helps to build nerve connections in the brain. It encourages the development of motor skills. It supports language development. It encourages ‘scientific thinking’ and problem solving. It can involve mindful activities which are beneficial for all children.