Morning Tubs

A few weeks ago I came across a post about Morning Work in a Kindergarten Discussion Group, that I belong to.  Someone mentioned that they have Morning Tubs and immediately the alarms went off in my head, this is what I had been looking for!!!  I have struggled lately with finding ways for my kiddos to practice their spelling in self-directed ways, as well as practice math skills and now there was a way to incorporate these two needs into a productive fun time for my kiddos.

I have 6 teams, which would be perfect for a rotation of 3 Spelling buckets and 3 Math buckets.  I decided we would not use them on Monday, as we have a parent volunteer come in and help us with AR tests and well let's admit it Monday's are just a little crazy!

So I started with 6 tubs, thank you Dollar Tree!!!!

Then I created a list of what goes in each tub...

Tub 1: Sticker Spelling

Tub 2: Fancy/Rainbow Spelling

Tub 3: Popsicle Play Doh Spelling

Tub 4: Making 10

Tub 5: Playing Card Math

Tub 6: Bingo Dabber Math

Tub 1

Sticker Spelling

Simple and easy, thanks to the Target Dollar Spot!!!  I got packs of sticker letters anytime I was at Target and I was waiting for the right time to use them.  I cut them up last weekend as we celebrated a 3 day weekend.  I had bought some craft tubs awhile back and they were perfect for holding the letters. I only had 3 (which works for all but one team and they willingly said they could share).  I put some lined paper, 4 copies of our current Spelling list, and the letters into the tub and presto, Sticker Spelling was born!

Tub 2

Fancy/Rainbow Spelling

I will admit after one week, I think I need to spice this tub up!  I thought a full tub of markers and spiral notebooks and free reign to write their Spelling Words would be a hit...but I guess I don't know the mind of a first grader as well as I thought I did.  Back to the drawing board, but until then Fancy/Rainbow Spelling will have to do.

Tub 3 

Popsicle Play Doh Spelling

Who doesn't love Play doh???  Ok well maybe not everyone is fond of it, but I knew my firsties would!!  For this tub, I took popsicle sticks and wrote individual letters of the alphabet on the ends (using both sides).  I then made about 4 or 5 sets for a bag, with a couple extra sets of just vowels.  I made 4 bags of letters and bought a 10 pack of Scentos Scented Dough.  Students will grab some play doh, roll it like a hot dog and find the sticks needed to spell out their words. 

Tub 4

Making 10

We all know how important addition and knowing your facts are and this group for the most part is pretty good at it (they better be, we spent pretty much the first four and a half months of school working on making 10).  As we move into new skills, I thought it would be important to have an opportunity to keep our making 10 skills strong!  This will be a tub, that I change out with different making 10 activities.  Currently, we are using Fill Your Mug Addition Game from 

Tub 5

Playing Card Math

This idea came from Pinterest, however I changed it up a bit.  I bought 4 sets of playing cards (Princess, Minnie Mouse, Spider Man, and the Avengers)  each student takes a set of playing cards and turns over two cards, then takes a white board and writes an addition problem to match the cards and solves it.  Simple and easy, and once again a huge shout out to the Dollar Spot at Target where I got the cards and the white boards!

Tub 6

Bingo Dabber Math

This may be the number favorite of my firsties, I mean who can blame them!  This one is simple and easy!  I purchased Bubble Pop from Jessica Michele, grabbed 4 cookie sheets and red, yellow, blue, green, orange, and purple bingo dabbers from the Dollar Tree and Bingo Dabber Math was ready to go.

 This Wednesday will mark the completion of week 1 of our Morning Tubs.  I plan to continue to make small tweaks and see how things go.  In a few weeks, I will survey the kiddos and see what tubs are not fan favorites and see if maybe they have any ideas!!!