Sanity Saver: Using Morning Tubs to Start the Day

The beginning of the day can be stressful.  You are trying to greet students as they walk in at different times, answer questions, help students unpack and settle in, all the while taking attendance and hot lunch count and listening to announcements to make sure you don’t miss anything important for the day.  In the past I used to have paper/pencil morning tasks for my students to do every day and to be honest it just added to the stress of the morning.  No matter how many directions I put on the board or how easy I thought I was making it for all my students, there would always be questions and then my name would start to be heard on repeat.  By the time we were ready to start our morning meeting my patience was gone and my blood pressure was high!

I know I’m late to the party (morning tubs have been around for awhile), but this year I decided to jump on the wagon and use them for Morning Work and they have literally changed my life.  Gone is the stress of the morning, gone are the questions, gone is my name on repeat, gone are the papers to copy.  Now I can welcome my students with a smile on my face and my one eye is no longer twitching, not to mention my patience is back.

 

I love how Morning Tubs have completely transformed our mornings and I also love how much more relaxed and calm our classroom environment seems to be.  If I were my students I would much rather work hands on with materials then dive right into a task I may or may not know how to do.  With morning tubs, the students know exactly what to do and I can now focus on building relationships, working one on one or in small groups, and the daily managerial things that need to be done first thing in the morning.

How Does It Work?

I currently have five tables in my classroom and each table has a shape name hanging above the table.  On our front board I also have the same shapes with numbers next to them.  Each day students come in and unpack.  Whoever has completed their morning routine first for their table grabs the morning tub that matches the number next to their shape and gets started.  (At the beginning of the year we practiced modeling appropriate behavior with the tubs and smart choices.)  At the end of the day I move the numbers down one shape so they are ready for the next day.  By the end of the week if we have had a five day week all tables have used all five morning tubs.

What Materials Do I Have in the Morning Tubs?

In the summer I partied with Amazon and did a little back to school shopping to stock up each tub.  So far we have not changed the materials in the morning tubs.  (My students are still interested in each tub).  I was thinking about changing out materials after winter break. (You can click on each picture to view them on Amazon)

In the end, I can’t say enough good things about morning tubs.  If you haven’t tried them and were thinking about it, DO IT! You won’t be sorry.  If you have any suggestions or ideas I’d love to hear how you run your morning tubs.  I hope this has helped answer any questions you might have.  If you have more please feel free to email me, I’d love to help!

Cheers to taking back the mornings and starting the day stress-free!

Happy Learning!