Morning Tubs

 One of my favorite times of the day happens first thing in the morning... Morning Tubs! Students come into school between 8:05-8:20am each morning. They all trickle in at different times, depending on if they're bus riders, walkers, or parent drop off. I used to do morning work to review math or reading concepts, but it became difficult to do when some students weren't coming in until right when the bell rang. Instead, a few years ago we introduced Morning Tubs, and I'll never go back!

I have 5 tables, and therefore have 5 Morning Tubs that get rotated each week. When students come in, they know to get unpacked and then they can get their Morning Tub. In each bin, there is some sort of STEM activity, toy, or activity for students to work on. The morning can be pretty chaotic- but this gets students excited to come into class, get unpacked, and have some social time before the day starts. 

It's important to give students time to just socialize and have fun when you can. The day is so packed with academics, so it's hard to do sometimes. By having this "soft start" of sorts, students have time to chat with their friends at their table, and do activities that they enjoy before starting the day. This also gives me an opportunity to check in with students as they're walking into class, asking how they're feeling that day, etc. It's not only good for the students, but it's good for me too to ease into the day too!