Rainbow Beans: Wet Sensory Play

Brighten up play time with rainbow beans! Wet sensory cannellini beans for sensory play activity.

Caution: these beans are wet from canned white cannellini beans. When they dry, they harden so there is a potential choking hazard. Adult supervision is advised. Dispose of the activity after play.

Here’s what you will need:

canned cannellini white beans
different food colouring
strainer
bowl
plastic zip lock bags
play tray or bin

How to create rainbow beans:

STEP 1: Strain beans from canned juices. Keep the canned juice in a bowl for another activity like aquafaba.

STEP 2: Empty strained cannellini beans into a zip lock bag and add food colouring.

STEP 3: Repeat this process as many times as you like. I only wanted to make pink, blue, green, yellow and purple.

STEP 4: Shake bags to even out the food colouring over the beans. Let the bags of cannellini sit for 5 minutes.

STEP 5: Pour into a sensory bin or play tray ready for playtime.

STEP 6: Lastly, when observing play, verbally communicate what your children are touching and feeling. This way they understand and can make meaning of their play. You will need to repeat descriptive words 3 times. For example: “squishy, squishy, squishy.”

I always encourage parents to ‘talk talk talk’ to their kids about new experiences. In my research, I came across another research article by M. Pressley (1995) who stated that: “language acquisition is affected negatively by being reared in socially disadvantaged homes, as a twin, or in a large family – that is, whenever there is environmental pressures that reduce the amount that parents can play and verbally interact with their children.”

There are a lot of parents out there who like to jest and laugh about all the sensory ideas that I come up with, but in all seriousness, I won’t have my kids negatively affected by my parental laziness. Sure there are days of PURE SURVIVAL and even some weeks and months, but I know I’m not alone when we all want what’s best for our kids and their educational future and that’s every parents common ground. Steal my ideas! I really don’t mind – and send me your pics! I love getting them.

If you have any questions about the research on educational cognitive psychology, comment below! Or email me at sarah@babybrainconnections.com.au