How to Dye Chickpeas for Sensory Bins and Sensory Play

mamabearjones....
/ mama.bear.jones
Chickpeas are a fantastic sensory bin base. They encourage use of fine motor skills like pincer grasp, they are great for scooping and pouring and are a much easier clean up than rice.
It’s pretty easy to dye dried chickpeas for sensory play, you can find all sorts of how to’s online and the basic concept is the same; ziplock bag or other airtight container + colour + shaking = dyed chickpeas!
So we decided to put them to the test and determine what is the best way to dye chickpeas? We compared gel food colouring, liquid watercolour, and acrylic paint.
We used the same method for each, ziplock bag + shaking. I checked in after a couple hours to separate chickpeas that we’re sticking together, and give them a bit of a turn over so that the bottoms got a chance to air dry, and left all out to dry overnight just to be safe.
Here are our results:
Gel Food Colouring
Pros:
Kept the silky smooth chickpea texture, dried the most quickly, technically taste safe (but remember chickpeas themselves can be a choking hazard so this base isn’t for the little ones who are still putting everything in their mouth!)
Cons:
Very little and uneven colour saturation, the colours didn’t stay true to the bottles (Our fuchsia came out dark brown!)
Liquid Watercolour
Pros:
Very saturated and vibrant colours, non toxic, kept the silky smooth chickpea texture,
Cons:
None!
Acrylic Paint
Pros:
Very saturated and true to colour, non toxic options
Cons:
Texture became a bit tacky, small amounts of paint flaking off after first play, strong smell
So there you have it! We prefer liquid watercolour, and most of the other mom blogs and sensory bin enthusiasts do too!
mamabearjones....