After blogging about my new morning routine a couple weeks ago, I had quite a few people ask if I would continue to keep sharing the items that I am placing in my morning tubs. Since I just switched to our second round of tubs this week, I thought I would share our items and how it’s going.
In my first post HERE about Morning Tubs, I told you that I decided to keep each group at a tub for 3 days. With 6 tubs, I only have to rotate the activities in the tubs every 18 days. The 3 days at a tub also allows students that may come in late one day to still get a chance to do their tub another day. My students complete their Morning Work at their desks. Then, they may go to their Morning Tub.
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I filled my first tub with popsicle sticks. I gave the students the freedom to use these as they wished. Some have been using them to make tally marks, some have built houses with them, and others have been making their names. I love seeing the creativity of children.
Our second tub is a writing activity. I printed these picture cards with pictures that I had purchased from Shutterstock a couple years ago for my Picture Perfect Writing packet. I placed them on a ring to use for writing ideas. I put these pictures in the tub along with writing paper. I am shocked by how much they love this tub. You could easily find old pictures in magazines to use for this tub.
My next tub is filled with pattern blocks. The students always love using pattern blocks to make designs.
The next tub was kind of a last minute idea. I had some extra rolls of yarn in a cabinet that I knew I wouldn’t use anytime soon. I put these into a tub and am letting the students use it as they wish.
Some have cut out shapes. Some have glued pieces of yarn onto paper to make pictures. One group decided to make a spaghetti dinner. Even though it was a cute idea, it was messy. This tub definitely does not look neat and organized now, like it did in the picture above.
My fifth tub has geoboards and rubber bands in it, which the students love.
My last tub consists of foam 3D shapes that came with our math series. I thought this would be a great way to let them explore with these before we actually use them in lessons.
It’s another great rotation of Morning Tubs. I will come back to share our next round with you in a couple of weeks. Are you using Morning Tubs? I’d love to hear your ideas as well 🙂
First off, I assess what the students know. Thankfully, I have a parent volunteer that has been pulling students out to assess their sight words. This is such a huge help, and it saves me so much time.
I thought I would blog about what my work stations look like right now at the beginning of the year. I have to be honest and say that these have evolved and changed so many times over the years. I kind of morph a lot of different ideas together (Debbie Diller, Daily 5, etc.) and use what’s best for my students and me. I think that’s the ultimate goal of teaching. We have to use what we know and make it work for us.
I use a pocket chart to display my station board. I use cardstock with pictures of each of the students along with their names to place on our station board. At first, I do not group my students academically. When I become a station, I group them by their academic needs, so I can easily differentiate the work stations and the activities I will be doing with my small group.
Another easy work station idea is Rainbow Roll and Write. I found this idea a couple years ago from 
Sometimes, I even make the students handwriting books a station. Since it’s hard to squeeze handwriting practice into our day, this is the perfect time.
For my groups that are capable of reading, we will start using my 
I want the students to be able to use plenty of hands-on activities in these tubs. For this first round, I have placed the following items and activities in my tubs.
6. Dice – Students roll two dice and write a number sentence on the dry erase board.
I am excited to continue adding new things to the tubs this year. I can change these up and use a variety of STEM activities as well as reading skills. I think these will be a great addition to our classroom.
After reading 
The students will love being able to spin prior to coloring their picture. I have six separate sets of Phonics Spinners, or I have placed them in a bundle.
