Morning Tubs (Play-Based Learning)

Good morning! This year I decided to completely change what my students do in the mornings. Last year I was overwhelmed by constantly having to find something online, make copies, and guide students through their morning work. I felt that what I was having them do wasn't as meaningful as it could have been and that I was wasting a lot of paper! So after lots of research from some of my favorite teachers and bloggers I decided to make my own edition of fine motor practice, stem bins, and morning tubs.

Why play-based learning? Especially at the beginning of the school year it is crucial for our students to have practice with their fine motor skills. These skills contribute to their ability to hold their pencil, trace lines, cut paper, etc. In addition to building fine motor skills, play-based learning builds creativity and social skills. They are building their physical, emotional, and social skills through the interactions they are having with their peers and with the activities you provide. These blog posts were helpful for me when I began thinking about using play-based learning as my morning work. Each teacher puts their own spin on morning tubs. Check out some of their ideas and activities with the links below.

Little Minds at Work by Tara West - Explore Tubs!

Fun in First by Jodi Southard - My Morning Routine

Bonnie Kathryn Teaching - Kindergarten Morning Tubs

The Brown Bag Teacher by Cathryn Reed - A 1st Grade Morning Work Alternative

What do I do? First, I purchased 6 white plastic dish pans from Dollar Tree to house my activities. Each tub has a label on it that I printed from TpT on Astrobrights paper. These can be accessed with the links below through the picture and affiliated amazon link.

These labels are on my morning tubs and the cubby that the tub is stored in. This makes for easy clean up with my students. These labels are FREE from Catherine Reed - The Brown Bag Teacher! They are beautiful printed on Astrobrights! 

Next, I choose which activities I was going to put in my first set of morning tubs. I wanted to pick materials that many of my students were familiar with. In order to keep my tubs an INDEPENDENT activity I have to fill them with engaging materials. So here are my first 6 morning tubs:

1. Threading

2. Geoboards

3. Beads and Pipe Cleaners

4. Sorting 

5. Bristle Blocks

6. Legos

Then, TRAIN THEM. You cannot welcome your students on Monday morning with your tubs laid out, ready and expect students to know what to do. I found this easiest to teach them is by modeling each tub specifically. The do's and the don'ts! I also showed my students how to clean up each tub, how it should look on the inside and how it should look in the cubby. We practice and watched one another choose a tub, choose a seat, and start working right away. My students are allowed to work in groups of 4 and sit anywhere in the classroom. Throughout the day, after lots of modeling, we practiced our morning tubs for 3-5 minutes several times.

Last, give them a go! My students still needed guidance, which is expected on the first day. I am still learning what works best in my classroom. As I change them out I will keep you updated! I'm excited about how these will help my students and allow for social play in the classroom. Good luck to all who are trying morning tubs in their classroom this year! Comment below with your activities and how it's going so far.

Lucy Calkins: Take 2

It's hump day! Happy Wednesday y'all! This past January I shared my writing folders and a TpT freebie based on Lucy Calkins Writing Units of Study. This is my school systems mandated writing curriculum. It is not only my second year tackling it but our school systems second year as well! In the last year I have learned a lot about the curriculum and how to make it work in my Kindergarten classroom. This year I changed a few components of my writers workshop based on end of year reflections and to meet the needs of my class this year. 

First of all, I am still using writing folders with my students. Each students has a writing folder that contains their writing workshop resources. This year I included an alphabet chart, color words, number words, and the Dolch pre-primer and primer sight words. Later in the year I will add our writing rubric and anchor chart for spelling. These resources were pulled from various TpT shops and authors. Check them out below. Each picture is a link to where you can purchase your own copy.

             

These folder covers are very easy to use and even easier if you print them on half sheet shipping labels. Check out the affiliated amazon link to grab your half sheet shipping labels.

In my writing folders I use the color/number chart, "my writing rules" checklist, and the "I can spell." chart from Samantha Kelly. Her anchor charts in this resources are great! They will be used throughout the year in our writers workshop.

These phonics charts are awesome. Right now my writing folders only have the alphabet chart from this bundle. Later in the year I will add charts as students are exposed to and using more sounds/patterns in their writing.

More from Haley O'Connor! I love her resources. This pack makes a great communication folder (which is what I use it for primarily) but I also pulled the Dolch pre-primer and primer sight words charts to also put in their writing folders. Later in the year I can add the 1st grade list to students folders who are ready for it.

GRAB YOUR FREEBIE!

Finally, grab your TpT freebie to label the pockets in your folder. Print these on Avery labels for easy application. For more information about these labels check out my original post about writing folders.

And drum roll... here are my writing folders!

Question, what do you have in your writing folders?

As the year goes on I plan to share more of our writing workshop. My students are doing so well with writing independently for extended periods of times. On Monday they wrote for 25 minutes and were all fully engaged. You could have heard a pen drop! I was able to conference with some the students who were ready to start labeling their drawing. These students were quick to pick up on identifying the beginning sound and letter they needed for each of their labels. This progress is amazing! I'm excited to see where my students go this year with their writing. Do you use Lucy Calkins? If so, what do you love about her curriculum and what do you find challenging?

Lucy Calkins Writing + TpT FREEBIE

Good morning! As we jump back into school, a new year is an excellent time to reorganize. In my classroom we follow the Lucy Calkins Writing Units of Study (it is the mandated writing curriculum from the county). Not only is this my first year teaching writing in Kinder, it's also my first exposure to Lucy Calkins (talk about a learning curve).

Before beginning writing, I set up a writing folder for each of my students. Calkins suggests that the folders have one side for pieces the students are working on and one side for finished pieces. I created these easy to read (Kinder friendly) labels to use in my folders. I wanted something that was going to be understood by all of my students (ESOL and nonreader friendly). Simply place the "GO I'm working on." green label on the left pocket in the writing folder and the "STOP I'm finished." red label on the right pocket. I've also included a writing folder label for the front of each folder. Grab your FREEBIE below!

Click for link to FREEBIE download!

Next, check out Learning At The Primary Pond and her post about using writing folders to support independent writers. I referred to her post several times while creating my writing folders. She has an awesome freebie included in her post. Thank you Alison!

Click for a link to the post.

Everyday during writing my students use their writing folder. Every. Single. Day! In the prongs I have added several writing resources for students to use during independent writing time. All the resources I chose to use are from TpT. Check out these fantastic resources and those who made them! (Click on the images for links to the resources on TpT.)

This resource is phenomenal!
I especially love the personal word wall.

I love, love, love this rubric!
So much that I created an anchor chart version of it.

Food for thought: How do you organize students writing materials in your classroom? What curriculum do you follow? What do you find challenging about teaching writing in Kinder?