ABC Rescue Bins follow my simple ‘ABC Formula’ which makes busy bin set up easy and effective, keeping toddlers entertained and learning. Here are six ABC Rescue Bin ideas you can use today.
What Are ABC Rescue Bins?
ABC Rescue Bins are essentially busy bins that you can set up in advance and pull out when your day needs rescuing. Important phone calls, cooking dinner, toddler meltdowns, bickering siblings… all of these moments can be made easier with an ABC Rescue Bin.
What’s great, is that they can also be used for good, quality, 1-1 time with your kids, too. They don’t just have to be used as a tool to rescue the day from negative behaviors or tedious adult tasks… they can (and should!) absolutely be used for bonding and learning crucial skills together.
ABC Rescue Bins eliminate the decision fatigue that often comes with trying to plan and put together engaging and fun learning activities. In addition to this, they also are effective eat stopping negative behaviors in their tracks. It’s my go-to tool for, well, saving the day.
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Why ABC Rescue Bins are Successful
Traditional ‘busy bins’ have failed us in the past, and I know that I’m not alone in that sentiment. It’s overwhelming, right? You go out and buy some shoebox-sized bins, eager to start a new routine for your kiddos, only to have a bunch of empty bins staring you in the face, clueless as to what to put inside.
Totally have been there. I get it. This is partly why I’ve always disliked busy bins in the past – I never knew how many items or what sort of items to place inside. AND THEN, I’d only be disappointed when my toddler immediately dumped the entire contents of the bin out onto the floor and walked away in 30 seconds. Sound familiar?
ABC Rescue Bins differ from traditional busy bins in that they follow a formula, basically a guide that tells you exactly what to put inside your bins. Not only that, but their size offers the opportunity to organize your activities properly so that the items are less likely to be dumped.
Lastly, they are all together in a slide out style shelf. This is very important, because it means one single bin can be pulled out to play with, without having to lift the bin from the bottom of a heavy stack of other bins.
This is the exact busy bin shelving unit that I use in my house and highly recommend. I also cannot stress enough the importance of utilizing zipper pouches. I like these various sized ones and these bigger sized ones. A pack of each is plenty to get you started, and trust me, it is NOT a step you’ll want to skip.
The ‘ABC’ in ‘ABC Rescue Bins’
‘ABC’ is a simple acronym for ‘Ace It, Build It, Color It’. This is what you are going to follow for what to place inside each bin: one item from each of those three categories.
Ace It: a learning activity – anything that helps them practice a skill that they are working on. This could be anything from using scissors to learning letters to doing basic math and so much more. It is going to vary based on your child’s age and skill level.
Build It: a building toy – any type of toy that can be built or manipulated. This could be puzzles, magnetic tiles, dress up dolls, Legos, shape matching toys, felt sandwich parts, etc.
Check out my Instagram Highlight titled ‘B for Build It’ for a complete list of toy pictures and links for this category by clicking here and scrolling through my highlights.
Color It: a coloring activity – anything that is considered ‘arts and crafts’. This could be Water Wow, paint sticks, Scribble Scrubbies, Color Wonder, coloring books, chalk, dry erase markers, etc.
*For a detailed list of ideas and more information for each of these three categories (including more in depth skills ideas) check out my introductory ABC Rescue Bin blog post by clicking here.* You won’t want to miss it!
Below you will find six complete ABC Rescue Bin ideas that you can recreate in your own home!
ABC Rescue Bin Idea #1
A: Ace It – Shape Trace Using Pencils
Practice handwriting, shape recognition, and pencil grasp with this easy shape tracing worksheet and shape tracing stencil. You can get the freebie printable by clicking here or include a stencil like the one pictured above for younger toddlers. My newly turned 5 year old greatly benefits from this pencil grasp tool that can be attached to any pencil.
B: Build It – Felt Sandwich Creation
I don’t know what it is about this felt sandwich toy, because it seems SO simple, but both of my children have loved this one for years and never hesitate to play with it when it’s in rotation. They can build combinations of sandwiches – and this almost always leads to some sort of pretend kitchen independent playtime.
C: Color It – Chalk + Mini Chalkboards
These mini chalkboards come in handy for doing different learning activities – like practicing letters and numbers, but they can also be used to just draw and color. I love this chalk because they will not break since they are in a twistable plastic holder.
ABC Rescue Bin Idea #2
A: Ace It – Hole Punch + Dot Stickers
Here is an easy activity that you can set up within seconds. Awhile back, I made these pattern frames with just paper, dot stickers, and a marker (where they put pom pom balls on the correct colored dot sticker) and decided to reuse/recycle the activity by just adding a hole punch. I didn’t even have to explain the concept to my 5 year old, he immediately started hole punching the dot stickers on each frame (fine motor activity, pattern discrimination).
B: Build It – Magnetic Doll Dress Up
My two kids would play with these every single day if given the opportunity. When we rotated these bins out, my son kept asking and asking where his Joey Magnetic Dress Up Doll went. A HUGE hit. I love that they have a Julia Magnetic Dress Up Doll too. There are TONS of combinations of professions/outfits to try on. *Both dress up sets fit stacked in ONE pouch!*
C: Color It – Water Wow Activity Pads
You can never go wrong with a good ol’ Water Wow Activity Pad. A staple in every house! My daughter would play with Water Wow daily if given the opportunity. We love these Blues Clues Water Wow Activity Pads.
ABC Rescue Bin Idea #3
A: Ace It – Pop It Play Dough Fill
This activity is so much fun! Simply add a pop it (any size is fine), play dough, and kid scissors or play dough scissors to your zipper pouch.
Have your kids practice rolling ‘snakes’ from play dough and then using the kid scissors (or a play kitchen knife if scissors are too challenging still) to cut balls of play dough. Use the balls of play dough to fill each well of the pop it (fine motor, scissor skills).
B: Build It – Egg Shape Match Up
We’ve had this Egg Shape Match Up Toy for 2-3 years now and they are still a big hit in our house. In fact, I’ve got a second set – the Egg Letter Match Up on our birthday wish list because my kids love them so much. This is another toy that almost always leads to independent play in the play kitchen once it’s out.
C: Color It – Dot Markers + Do a Dot Pages
Do a Dot markers and Do a Dot Coloring Books have been a HUGE hit with my 2 year old for awhile now. Every morning, you can count on her to run to an ABC Rescue Bin or the Homeschool Closet and shout, ‘dot, dot, dot!’.
ABC Rescue Bin Idea #4
A: Ace It – Pom Pom Patterns
Here is another 30 second set up that can be used again and again. Simply add dot stickers to popsicle sticks in varying patterns. You can do any combination, ABA, AAB, ABC – you get the idea. Add a handful of pom pom balls to the zipper pouch with the popsicle sticks and have your little ones practice making and recognizing patterns (plus a good fine motor / color recognition activity).
B: Build It – Gears
My son received these Learning Resources Gears for his 2nd birthday and has been hooked on them ever since. You can build so many cool things with them – even a giant robot with moving gears when the handle is turned.
C: Color It – Color + Erase Activity Pads
I’m always surprised when I stumble upon these awesome Color and Erase Activity Pads at our local dollar store. Don’t underestimate hitting up your local dollar store for some of these coloring activity ideas. These are really neat, you color and then use a wet washcloth or paper towel to wipe it clean and then draw again.
ABC Rescue Bin Idea #5
A: Ace It – See + Spell Puzzles
You’ll notice that we have a bunch of the Melissa and Doug toys in our collection – they are built so sturdy and almost always are very open-ended or geared toward learning and these See and Spell puzzles are no exception. There are a bunch of different word options and each sturdy wooden puzzle is double-sided.
See how I keep it organized (picture above and below) by putting the letters in one pouch and a couple of the wooden puzzles in another and then combining the two pouches. The set comes with a TON of puzzles, but I typically just put a couple in an ABC Rescue Bin.
B: Build It – Lacing Beads
Lacing Beads are a classic staple for any house to have. This is a nice sturdy set and I love that I can use the ‘lacing thread’ for other activities – I recently used the thread for a spring lacing card freebie printable in our Spring Themed ABC Rescue Bins. Grab the free printable by clicking here.
C: Color It – Dry Erase Letter Trace
My two year old is currently very obsessed with dry erase markers and dry erase erasers. I love this set of dry erase markers because they are smaller sized – perfect for younger toddlers. These dry erase erasers are really neat because they are magnetic, so they can stick to your fridge or your easel if it is magnetic.
I just added in some laminated letters to trace – but my two year old typically will just scribble all over the laminated sheet and erase and repeat.
ABC Rescue Bin Idea #6
A: Ace It – Roll + Count
These materials were both found at the dollar store. This is a very simple roll + count activity you can introduce to your toddler. Have them roll the dice, call out the number, and then count out the gems according to the number on the dice. (counting, number sense, number recognition, fine motor)
B: Build It – Arctic Magnatiles
If you’ve got Magnatiles already, the expansion packs, like an Arctic Themed one, are a great gift to give for holidays, birthdays, or to younger siblings whose bigger siblings seem to already ‘have it all’. There are so many fun expansions and it helps bring new life into already loved toys.
For the animal themed expansions, I always add more animals by incorporating plastic animal figurines in the mix and I will also add in magnetic people (they are SO cool)!
C: Color It – Color Wonder Pages
Color Wonder Markers and Color Wonder Coloring Pages are a must for any household with young kids. There are tons of options out there and many of them include popular cartoon characters to fit your child’s current interest.
Give it a Try
I hope that these ideas are useful for you and inspire you to create your own ABC Rescue Bins at home. Please let me know how the bins are working for your family by leaving me a comment here or sending me a DM on Instagram – I love to hear from you!
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