Morning Tub Ideas for Kindergarten

Ready to take your morning routine from chaos to consistency? These morning tub ideas for kindergarten will transform your mornings and engage your students actively from the day's first bell. With just a few basic classroom supplies, you'll be set up for many hands-on morning tub activities to help your students start their day positively.

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What Are The Benefits of Morning Tubs?

If you're new to using them, check out the list of benefits of morning tubs below. If you'd like to dive into the benefits further, check out this kindergarten morning tubs blog post.

Consistency

Remember when I said morning tubs can transform your classroom from chaos to consistency? It's true! Morning tubs offer your students a consistent start to their day. When your students walk in the door, they know exactly what to do… grab their morning tub and get started on their activity for the day.

Organization

Have you experienced mornings where worksheets, school supplies, and scraps of paper are everywhere? Talk about a stressful start to the day. Morning tubs provide organization by using minimal supplies and keeping everything your students need to complete the activity in one place, no messes allowed.

Soft start

Just like adults, students need a little time in the morning to get their brains going. While adults may grab a cup of coffee, students can use morning tubs to warm up their brains and prepare their bodies for a day of learning. Morning tubs allow students to have fun, use fine motor skills, and learn all at the same time!

Practice key skills

Morning tubs also k=akkiw to practice important math and literacy skills. They help students work more independently and gain confidence in the skills they're practicing.

What Supplies Do You Need For Morning Tubs?

When it comes to morning tub ideas for kindergarten you're looking for hands-on and easy to prep activities. The best part about morning tubs is that you can use basic classroom supplies that you already have.

Additionally, you can do several activities throughout the year with the same supplies. Use the supplies differently to keep the activities fresh or use them the same way with a different skill. The options are truly endless.

Some of my favorite classroom supplies to use with morning tubs are:

• Play dough
• Dominoes
• Dot cubes
• Counting bears
• Plastic math cubes
• Color links
• Mini erasers – apples, stars, pets
• Mini clothespins
• Plastic spinners
• Whiteboards and dry-erase markers
• Pattern blocks
• Letter tiles
• Letter stamps
• Magnetic letters & numbers
• Letter cards
• Picture cards
• Metal rings to store cards
• Plastic trays

What Are Some Morning Tub Ideas for Kindergarten?

Now let's dive into some easy-to-prep and differentiate morning tub ideas for kindergarten. Remember, you can differentiate these activities by making the skill easier or more challenging, or by swapping out the skill being practiced.

Play dough Activities

Play dough isn't just for making snakes and pretend baking…play dough is perfect for helping students practice letters, numbers, shapes, counting, and more.

Students can use play dough independently to form uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, or shapes on play dough mats. They can even do this on cookie sheets or plastic placemats. This is especially effective at the beginning of the year.

Students can even work with a partner to practice matching uppercase and lowercase letters. One partner can form the uppercase letter and one partner can form the lowercase letter to match. Similarly, one partner can form a number while the other forms the same number of play dough balls to match.

Domino Activities

Dominoes are perfect for morning tubs as they help students practice counting, matching, and one-to-one correspondence. Students can line dominoes up, counting and matching the numbers on each end to make a domino maze.

They can also count the dots on each domino, say the number, and then count out that many objects to match. They can use objects such as mini erasers, color links, or counting bears. This is great practice for one-to-one correspondence.

Counting Bears and Plastic Math Cubes Activities

Counting bears and plastic math cubes are super versatile when it comes to morning tub ideas for kindergarten. They can be used to sort by color, count groups, make groups to show a number, or even to show equal groups.

Students can grab a handful of counting bears, count how many, and then model an equal group with plastic math cubes. They can also use these manipulatives to solve problems and model number pairs to 5 or 10 by using 2 colors to show the number pairs.

Pattern Block Activities.

Pattern blocks are perfect for sorting by size, shape, and color. These are great for practicing visual discrimination skills. Students can also use pattern blocks to practice making basic graphs and working with data.

For example, students can grab a handful of pattern blocks and make a simple graph to show the number of each pattern block they have. Then, they can tell how many of each pattern block and compare to see which shape has the most and the least.

Pattern blocks are great for free play, building, and creating. Sometimes letting students create freely at the beginning of the day is the best way to warm up their brains.

Dot Cube Activities

Dot cubes are also very versatile and make differentiating morning tub activities a breeze. Students can roll a dot cube and write the number on a whiteboard with a dry-erase marker. To make it more challenging, they can roll 2 dot cubes, count how many in all, and then write the number.

To practice counting and one-to-one correspondence, students can roll a dot cube and count out that many objects, such as mini erasers or colorful links.

Color Links Activities

Color links are fun for students and allow them to work their fine motor muscles as they connect and take apart the links.

Students can use the links as a way to sort by color or to practice non-standard measurement. Students can choose a basic object, such as a glue bottle or pair of scissors, and connect color links to see how many links long it is.

Letter Tiles and Letter Cards Activities

There are so many morning tub ideas for kindergarten that you can do with letter tiles and letter cards. You can mix up a set of uppercase letter tiles or cards and a set of lowercase letter tiles or cards and have students match them.

They can also use a stack of either uppercase, lowercase, or mixed letter tiles or cards to practice letter sounds. They will flip over the first letter tile or card, say the sound, and flip the next card. This can be done in partners, taking turns.

Magnetic Letters and Letter Stamps Activities

Magnetic letters and letter stamps are perfect for practicing building names, sight words, and CVC words later on in the year.

Students can practice building their names with magnetic letters or letter stamps. To practice sight words, you can include a simple list of sight words in the morning tub and have students build the words. The same can be done later on with CVC words.

Picture Card Activities

Picture cards provide a great visual for students and can be used with several morning tub activities. Students can choose a picture card, draw a picture, and write a sentence about it. At the beginning of the year, you can differentiate by having students draw and label a picture.

As students learn more about rhyming words, they can choose a picture card and say a word that rhymes. To practice blending sounds in CVC words later in the year, students can draw a picture card, sound out the CVC word, and write the word on a whiteboard.

I hope you feel more equipped than ever to start implementing morning tubs in your classroom. They are so doable and effective with the right supplies and activities. With these morning tub ideas for kindergarten, you'll be set with a ton of activities to use throughout the year.

Did you love these morning tub ideas and want more…even for the entire school year? You can check out my Kindergarten Morning Tubs Bundle, complete with 9 months' worth of seasonal morning tub activities to use all year long! These kindergarten morning tubs activities are planned for you, include “I Can” cards, and progress throughout the year. What more could you want!?

To learn more about storing and organizing your morning tubs, check out this blog post.