It is very important to set students up for a successful day the moment they enter the classroom! Having a consistent and predictable routine will allow students to know exactly what to do, so that you as a teacher are able to take care of things like attendance and other duties in the morning. I used to have my students do an entry task every morning, but this was difficult when students all came in at different times. Some students would finish and others would barely be getting started when it was time to transition. Plus, who wants to come in the door and immediately start doing work? Nobody. This is why I started using morning bins.
What Are Morning Bins?
My morning bins are made up of ten different hands-on, fine motor activities. They are engaging activities, so that students actually want to do them when they come in. And, they are continuous, meaning they do not have an ending point. So no matter what time students come in, they can all work on these activities until it is time to transition. They also provide a great opportunity to practice important fine motor skills that sometimes get overlooked during the rest of the school day.
What Activities Are In The Morning Bins?
There are ten different activities in the morning bins. They include:
Pom Pom Pictures
Stick Designs
Geoboard Pictures
Hole Punching
Bingo Dobber Pictures
Play Dough Pictures
Connecting Cube Pictures
Push Pin Poking
Pattern Block Puzzles
Cutting Practice
How Do You Manage Morning Bins?
In my classroom, I have 5 table groups. Every morning before students come in, I set one bin on each table. That is their bin for the entire time. As they are working, I play a playlist of songs (the same one everyday) that lasts about 15 minutes. This helps students to know how much time they have. Then, the next day I rotate the bins and each table group gets a new one. With ten bins, each table group gets to do each one about two times in a month. Then, each month I change out the materials in the bins. The activities stay the same so that students always know what to do, but the theme changes to match the month.
You can grab a year’s worth of morning bin activities HERE!
Morning Bins aren’t the only hands-on activities in our day. We also do free-flowing centers as well. You can read more about that HERE!
