For People With Toy "Bins", How Do You Do It?

[LaLa1923]

I currently have my set up in centers. I was wondering how you go about having bins or choices of toys put up ?

I've read a lot about providers on here having bins or only allowing this or that out at a time. Do you not have centers? Does anyway have pics they could share??

[Heidi]

LaLa-

If you are going for accreditation, don't go nuts with making changes until you're into self study. I know that how toys are displayed is addressed. Toy boxes with mixed toys are a no, that much I've found out. Not a change for me.

[Lianne]

My space is too small for centers. I have a kitchen, a train table, a small toy box of hats and an 8 cube by 2 cube shelf. Bins of toys go in the cubes and a puzzle or two or something similar sits on top.

Right now I have a bucket of trains and cars (train table has tracks molded into it), a bin of food and dishes, a bin of Dora & Diego toys (houses sit on the floor beside the shelf), a bin of Duplo, a bin of wooden blocks, a bin of board books and a bin with a magnetic toy set. On top sits a peg board with small bucket for the pegs, two wooden puzzles stacked on top of each other, a small bin with lacing cards and a shape sorter. The young ones dump bins but they learn not to. Older ones that dump bins have to tidy the mess up right away. The room is still a mess at the end of the morning but I sit in front of the shelf and the kids tidy up with me guiding them or the young ones bring me the toys and I fire them in the right bins.

ETA I can only have five kids here at a time and usually kids don't start in care until 12mos because moms get 1yr for mat leave.

[Starburst]

At the FCC I worked at she had just some regular plastic bins (can get them at the $1 store) and put them on a regular a book shelf. It was in a designated play room so she never told them they could only play with one toy at a time they just had to clean up and put everything away when they are done. Once every 2 weeks to a month an assistant (usually me) would sort the toys to make sure they are in the right box during nap time, as well as whiping down the shelves and bins for dust.

They also have pop up cloth block bins at the $1 store now with different designs and colors. So you could color cordinate certain toys; red cars in red box, blue cars in blue box or cars in the orange box and dolls/doll accessories in the pink box. You could also lable it so kids know what goes into what box with both letters and pictures (EX: "Cars" and a picture of a car). You can try having a "play director of the week" (or day/hour/0.5 hour); who monitors the toys and makes sure that the other kids put their toys back before getting a new one (it helps them enforce the rule and teatch them to lead by example). For centers you can break them up with a physical barrier such as a shelf or a visual barriar such as a tape line (on wall and floor).

[daycarediva]

I have bins, no centers here.

I have plastic bins with photo labels on each side. I have them arranged together, so one shelf of cars and trains, another shelf of blocks, another shelf of art bins, another shelf of science and another shelf with toys I rotate out.

I allow children to 'check out' 1-2 bins at a time, (1 if playing alone, 2 if playing with a friend) and pick those up and return them to the shelves before they can 'check out' more bins.

I mix up the bins, so if they pull out a car bin it will have some tracks (cut up old jeans with white lines and iron on Velcro for them to stick together in one, a small fabric 'city' with roads in another, etc) and cars, road signs, little trees, etc. The trains all have an engine and caboose and a mix of cars, tracks and signs. I currently have 4 train bins, 4 car bins.

Block bins are wooden blocks (all shapes) I have 3 of those. I have 6 bins of mega blocks, waffle blocks, and my step dad just made me some tree cookies and little stumps all sanded nicely and those are a HUGE hit.

Art bins are things like stickers and scrap paper in one, bingo dobbers and dotting papers with our current letter/number shape in one, tangrams, stamp pads, colored pasta and yarn, that sort of thing and I rotate those out as they lose interest.

In my dramatic play area, I have a kitchen set, washer and dryer and baby things that are available all the time.

The book area and kids couches are also available all the time.

During free play, I don't set a timer, I allow them to play with their toy the entire time, or continue get as many new bins as they want as long as the previous bin is picked up. Most of my kids know the routine and very, very rarely have to be reminded of picking up their own bin.

[Scout]

I have bins seperated by what they are: hot wheels, bigger "baby friendly" cars, trains, people, animals, blocks, and they are shelved next to what they would go with. I have a shelf of instruments, misc. shelves are up high. They can play with whatever they like as long as they clean up and ask me for the higher items. Near my kitchen I have a bin of dishes, pots, and such and one of all play food. Costumes are in one big bin. Dollhouse is on top of a 3 drawer dresser with all it's accesories, dolls in a big bin, Doll clothes are in a laundry basket. It has worked very well for me! All small bins from Dollar Tree too!

[JoseyJo]

I have bins seperated by what they are: hot wheels, bigger "baby friendly" cars, trains, people, animals, blocks, and they are shelved next to what they would go with. I have a shelf of instruments, misc. shelves are up high. They can play with whatever they like as long as they clean up and ask me for the higher items. Near my kitchen I have a bin of dishes, pots, and such and one of all play food. Costumes are in one big bin. Dollhouse is on top of a 3 drawer dresser with all it's accesories, dolls in a big bin, Doll clothes are in a laundry basket. It has worked very well for me! All small bins from Dollar Tree too!

Exactly the same here except our dollhouse is on the floor and the accessories/furniture are on a shelf up high enough the under 2.5 crowd cant reach it and must ask.

[Angelsj]

I have blocks, duplos, plastic animals, cars, puppets, lacing materials, gears, large magnets, small action figures (Imaginetix or something such, and some Rescue hero stuff), noah's ark figures, and some unit blocks.
I use the cubes with either plastic containers (each cube fits two) or fabric containers (each fits one.)
They also have a shelf with larger cars, some weeble stuff, and magnetic drawing boards. We have a tool bench and a kitchen with baby stuff (high chair, bed, swing, stroller, cleaning stuff like brooms)

The main thing is the kids are allowed to take whatever, and as much of whatever as they like. I do not control what they play with, or how they play with it (unless it is a safety issue) or what they mix. Some of the youngers dump, but most of the time, elaborate, lengthy play results, as they mix several boxes to create large projects. Zoos, towns, garages, schools, or huge structures have all been created, sometimes several at once.

[Lyss]

I have a combination of bins and centers, not exclusively one or the other.

My main "bin" area is an ikea trofast shelf with 6 bins (3 small, 3 big) that contain mega blocks, animals, baby toys, cars, music instruments, larger animals (we're currently obsessed with animals). I also have extra of these bins with other toys (train sets, more cars, pattern tiles...) that I keep in the garage and swap out as needed. I spray the toys down daily (or every other day ) and wash them in the dishwasher (most anyway) monthly. All the bins are labeled with photos unless they are clear ones.

My main bin shelf is in between my construction/block area and my open free play area because the kids can pull the bins out from each side. so if the kids want to build houses for the animals they can pull the animals out on the block side of the shelf or if they want an open area for using all the animals they can pull the bin out on the other side. I'm on my phone or I'd post a picture.