They get to practice, they get to visit with their friends while they work and I don’t have to worry about collecting unfinished work or correcting papers. While they are practicing with their activities, I can herd late children through the door, gather notes and lunch money and take attendance. (If you’re eyeing my numbers and want to get a set of your own, just click HERE and they are available in that post.) I let them choose where to sit–unless it’s an activity that needs to be at a table because it will destroy the carpet. They simply pull the drawer completely out, carry the drawer to a location of their choosing in the room and start the activity. So when students arrive in the morning, they look to see which number is next to their’s and their partner’s name. Ideally, I would have these lower, but I just didn’t have space. Those numbers also correspond to the pocket chart I have hanging on my cupboard above the drawers. You can choose more or less drawers, it’s really whatever works for you. I knew that if I had around 24 students, I could assign 2 to a drawer and there would be plenty of activities for everyone. So whatever I was going to use to house my activities, it needed to take up minimal space. When I was planning on the set up for these morning work bins a couple of years ago, I knew that I would have one very LARGE mountain that I needed to conquer–SPACE. These commissions help with the cost of maintaining this blog and allow me to continue bringing you valuable content, activities, and ideas. I do receive a small commission when someone purchases an item after clicking on a link. This post does contain some affiliate links for your shopping convenience.
They lay the foundation for writing and many of the tools they use I will integrate later into more academic activities to keep them building and working those fingers. It’s because of this, that my morning work is strictly geared toward fine motor activities the first few weeks of the year.
And for the ones coming in a bit more prepared, they have been on summer vacation hiatus and need to re-ignite those fine motor muscles as well. So starting at the beginning for these little ones is a MUST.
They have very little previous experience with a classroom setting let alone writing their name or letters or numbers. (That’s a debate for another time, and nothing I have control over.) While we have an amazing pre-k readiness program, what we have seen is an influx of children who have never been to preschool and have very little exposure to basic kindergarten skills. Last year my district made the decision to discontinue our Junior Kindergarten program. It doesn’t happen overnight, so we have to take advantage of every opportunity to strengthen those little fine motor muscles–morning work is perfect for that! (If you’re interested in checking out how activities are built upon month after month, check out my monthly posts on Fine Motor Morning Work Stations, just click HERE.) But we have to start them somewhere, we have to get them from HERE today–the today where they can’t hold a pencil or write their name or cut on a straight line–to the tomorrow when they are reading and writing and adding and subtracting.
You know, what I need them to work on now is very different from what they will be doing later in the year. By setting the stage and giving them lots of time to explore with tools, you will find that these stations become super independent as you expand skills and difficulty. These first stations are meant to get your students comfortable with materials and activities that will build as the year progresses. Morning Work Stations/Tubs at the beginning of the year will look very different than what they will look like later in the year. Today, they are on time, ready to get to work and anxious about what they will find in their drawer. Students used to come in, dragging their feet and wasting time. Morning Work Stations are THE BEST thing to happen to my mornings. I needed something that would provide hands-on practice but give them a chance to work cooperatively. Blah! I mean, like anything, if it works for you, GREAT! But it has never really been an effective or engaging activity for my students. I’ve told you before how much I dislike paper/pencil morning work.
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