We are having all the Fall feels over here lately with cooler weather. I took a quick trip to my local dollar store to see what I could come up with for a Halloween themed bin on a budget.
I want to start though with a quick, easy way to dye light colored beans. This would easily work for rice or pasta too. Dump your beans in a ziploc, squirt in some paint and hand sanitizer and shake! I did a good amount of paint to coat everything and 4 squirts of sanitizer.
Line a dish or pan with paper towels and dump them out to dry. So easy. We did purple and orange to mix in with our black beans. 1 bag of beans per color for 2 bins or split them up and make all kinds of colors. So many fun options!
For our bin, I grabbed some plastic rings, eyeballs, trick or treat cups, monster finger puppets, a 2 pack of skeleton hands and 2 plastic 25 gallon bins (by the Tupperware). Since the bins are on the smaller side I decided to make 2 to split up the items. We had more than enough little toys for 2 bins. I bought 2 bags of black beans and 1 bag of pinto beans for each bin, which is the perfect amount.
Once our painted pinto beans dried I sprinkled just a few handfuls in each bin. Here’s the final bin:
Some of our favorite ways to play with this bin:
- count how many eyeballs you can balance with the skeleton hand
- sort the rings by color on each skeleton finger
- scoop the beans with the cups
- sort the colored beans
- scoop with the hand into the cups
- practicing our colors and numbers (counting)
Let me know if you make one! I would love to see your version!
Making it up as we go,
Monica & Family ❤
Ellie Joe Design Co 