My morning routine with my first graders has definitely evolved over the years. I have always used some type of morning work, but it wasn’t until about 4 years ago that I became really intentional about my morning work. I wanted to create something that allowed my students to hit all of their important reading and math skills. A couple years ago, I created my Differentiated Morning Work for my students. I love that it reviews so many 1st grade standards, and it truly helps to ensure that I am teaching all of the concepts.
This year I also decided to implement morning tubs into our morning routine. I wanted to give early finishers a chance to explore classroom manipulatives and add some STEM activities into our day.
When students come into the classroom, they hang up their backpacks, turn in their LION books and begin working on the morning work paper on their desks.
At the beginning of the year, the students need a lot of guidance with their morning work. However, I am always amazed at how quickly they can become independent with these. When the students are finished with their morning work page, they turn it over on their desks because we go over these together later on in the morning.
Then, the students can go and get their morning tub.
I have assigned groups of 3 to 4 students per tub. Some mornings all 4 students make it to the tubs, other mornings breakfast or morning work may take longer and only 1 or 2 students end up using a tub. I leave a group at a tub for 3 days, then I rotate. So, I will only have to change tub activities every 18 days.
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.
1. Legos – The students have to make their names using Legos.
2. Play-doh – The students have to make 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional shapes using Play-Doh.
3. Shape Templates – Students draw a picture using the geometric shape templates from our Everyday Math series.
4. Jenga Blocks – The students have to build a shelter using Jenga blocks.
5. Color Squares – Students use colored squares to build a tower. The goal is to build the tallest tower possible.
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 Brown Bag Teacher’s take on Morning Tubs, I knew I wanted to give it a try this year. I love that I am still able to incorporate the morning tubs with the traditional morning work.
Do you use traditional morning work, morning tubs, or a combination of both?
The important thing to remember is that 
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.
