Are you ready for your morning to run itself completely? Are you ready for students to filter into your classroom and know exactly what to do? Individual morning bins are your answer and the perfect soft start to your school day! Put the worksheets away and begin your day with students engaged in creative, hands-on activities that get them ready for a day full of learning. Continue reading to learn everything you need to know about setting up and implementing individual morning work tubs, morning tub activities or morning bins in elementary classrooms. Whatever term you like to use is A-okay with me.
What are Individual Morning Bins?
Individual morning bins in elementary classrooms are organized activity bins with hands-on, open-ended, creative, and engaging learning materials. Students work independently with the materials in their bins. This limits the loud, overstimulating mornings that can be found with group morning bins, with students not getting along, playing loudly, etc., but still provides students with the ability to start their day with play.
Benefits of Morning Bins in Elementary Classrooms
There are plenty of benefits of morning tubs or bins. Classroom morning bins offer many benefits for young students, like kindergarten, 1st grade, and 2nd grade kiddos. These bins, filled with fun activities, help children transition smoothly from home to school, making the start of the day easier and creating less hectic mornings in the classroom. Additionally, they promote independence as students choose their activities, helping them practice decision-making and responsibility that will help for the entire year!
Morning bins also support fine motor skills and cognitive development through hands-on tasks like puzzles, building blocks, and art supplies. These activities improve coordination and problem-solving abilities while sparking creativity and critical thinking. Additionally, morning bins create a calm start to the day, reducing anxiety and setting a positive tone for learning.
For teachers, morning bins provide a chance to observe and understand students’ interests and skill levels informally. This insight can help with lesson planning and tailored instruction. Overall, morning bins enrich the classroom environment, boosting both academic and social-emotional growth.
How to Set Up Individual Morning Bins in Elementary Classrooms
Any time I post on social media about my individual morning bins, I always get asked what’s in the bins and how I set them up, so let me explain and break down the morning tub materials!
Step One: Get Your Bins
The first thing you need is, of course, the bins. You will need one bin per student. It is worth getting durable bins since the students will handle them daily. You can choose bins with or without a lid; it will depend on your space and how you want to store your bins. Here are a couple of recommendations:
Sterilite Mini Crates, 12-pack
These are the ones that I use. They are extremely sturdy and at a fairly good price! I have linked the clear ones here, but you can usually find colored ones at Walmart during back-to-school for about $1.50 each.
Sterilite 15 qt Clear Bins, 12 pack
These bins are another good option because they have latching lids and are easily stacked. They are durable, highly rated, and are a decent price though higher priced than the mini crates.
TIP: Make sure to get a few extra bins if new students are added.
Step 2: Print Your Labels
Even though these bin options are see-through, you want to label the bins in groups. I choose to group my small groups by color, and if you would like to grab the group color bin labels I used, you can click the picture below! This is a simple morning bin routine to teach at the beginning of the year. Find your color and get started. If you need more than 4 different groups of bins, don’t worry. There are 6 total color options.
Step 3: Gather Your Materials
This is the fun part! I like to include social skills, literacy, and math materials in each bin so that students are exposed to all the skills they will use in the classroom each week and can work on monthly skills as well. Using open-ended activities for students to explore and create with is a great way to begin the year and teach morning routines.
As the year progresses, you can add activity cards or task cards to those materials to make your morning bins a little more academic. I love to find materials in the Target dollar spot or at the dollar store because I do not feel like I waste money if a bin activity doesn’t go over well with students or if they are just not into it. Here are some morning tub ideas and what is in my bins:
Yellow Bin
Mini cups for stacking, blank wooden domino blocks, mini puzzles, mini paper pad, and alphabet stamps and ink pad.
Green Bin
Brain flakes, squigz, play dough, and silicone keyboard cover (for typing practice) with color word cards (change out the cards to other vocabulary, spelling, heart word card as desired).
Blue Bin
Small whiteboard, fine tip dry erase marker, small etch-a-sketch, mini eraser sort with fine motor tweezers, and building bricks (in a container with a baseplate to keep all those little pieces contained).
Purple Bin
Pattern blocks, play dough, hashtag blocks, and magnetic letter board.
Note: You will need something to label the bins with and several different storage items to contain the different materials in each bin.
Now that’s a lot of information. But don’t worry. I have created an individual morning bin setup guide you can download here. It includes:
- Everything you need to do
- Linked necessary items
- A comprehensive list of what I include in each bin
All of this is organized with pictures, as well as some other wonderful materials you could add to your bins.
Teacher TIP: Starting individual morning bins can be a lot of work. Share these items on your Amazon wishlist with friends and family. Many parents also like to help provide things for their child’s class.
You can set up and display a classroom wish list (grab my resource here) at open house, meet the teacher, or parent night for parents to grab an item and send it into class with their student. This might delay the start of your morning bins to after the first day of school but will take some of the upfront costs off of you.
Step 4: Distribute Materials
For example, if you have 24 bins and 4 groups, you have 6 of each “style” bin. I bought one large pack for some of the items and split it into 6 groups, like the brain flakes and pattern blocks. I bought 6 of each item for others, like puzzles and squigz.
Once you have your bins labeled into groups and all your items you can organize the items into their bins. Remember, you want a mix of different tactile materials in each bin and bins that have both literacy and math materials.
Step 5: Assign Bins
I use carabiners and tags with my students’ names to assign the individual morning bins. Each week, I switch my students to the next bin. For example, the 6 students who had the yellow bins would move to the green, the students who had green would move to blue, the students who had blue moved to purple, and the students who had purple rotated back to yellow. It’s an easy system, and it only takes minutes at the end of each week to set up a new morning tub.
Plus, as I rotated the carabiners, I could ensure that all bin items were in proper working order. If something was missing or broken, I knew which student needed another explanation about expectations. Since the bins are labeled and individually used, there weren’t any “it wasn’t me” conversations. The name tags are also available in the morning bin labels resource.
Teacher TIP: When assigning bins, try to make sure that several students with the same bin are not all sitting together. This helps if pieces end up on the floor to know who they belong to.
Step 6: Introduce Morning Bins to Students
At the beginning of the school year (or whenever you start your morning bin routine), thoroughly go over the expectations of how to use each of the morning bins and the materials inside, as well as go over the consequences should the bins not be used properly.
Try creating a morning bin anchor chart to explain your expectations and keep the chart to refer to as needed. Some expectations you could use:
-I am on task
-I am using the materials appropriately
-I can take care of my morning bin materials
-I am working independently, calmly, and quietly
-I can put materials back in my bin as I found them
-I can clean up my activities and put my morning bin away properly when asked
I give my students a transition reminder to ease into cleaning up and moving on to the next activity. A two-minute warning before we clean up is usually enough time. This has proven to help as we transition to the other morning tasks, whether a morning meeting, morning work, or calendar time.
Some activities, like the stacking cups, are easier to play with and control on the floor than on student desks. While going over the expectations for the bins and materials, explain to students which items may be used on the floor and designate a place for students to use those materials.
Step 7: How to Store
Keep your individual morning bins accessible to your students by keeping them in an easy-to-reach place in your classroom. Students should be the ones to grab and put away their bins independently. I use a double-sided rolling bookshelf that was already in my classroom.
What is the Teacher Doing?
Here is where it gets really good! When the morning bins are first introduced, you should observe students using the materials. Walk around and make sure students are on task and using the materials properly. As students get used to the morning routine, you will have more flexibility in your morning. This will be your time to get ALL THE THINGS DONE!
If you are starting your morning with bins as students trickle in, you can stand at the door and greet students. You can respond to last-minute emails. Or talk over your day with your assistant (if you are lucky enough to have one). Another thing you can do is review lesson plans. One of my favorites is being able to pull students who may need some one-on-one time to review skills. You can also use the time to assess students.
Many of these tasks can also be done if you are starting your school day (after all students have arrived) with morning bins. In addition to taking attendance, doing a lunch count, and grading/ passing back homework. This can also be an amazing time in the morning to engage with and build relationships with students. The possibilities are endless!
What Makes My Individual Morning Bins System Unique?
Most morning bin setups include one item per morning bin. However, I have found that sometimes students get bored while playing with the same item over an extended period of time. For me, the thought of having to remember to change the morning tub activities order every single day seemed a bit overwhelming. So, I created individual morning bins with mixed materials in each bin!
I have four different bin styles in my classroom, and when students grab their bin, they can play with four to five activities within it. Students can choose to use one or several materials throughout the morning. They keep the bin for an entire week (so I am only changing the bin order once a week). You could also do monthly theme bins for Halloween, spring, winter, the last week of school, etc.
I have also found that this helps eliminate students getting “bored” with the items in the bins because they only get to use the items one week every month.
Are Your Ready for Morning Bins for elementary classrooms?
Ready to get started with Individual Morning Bins with mixed materials?
Don’t forget to download this FREE, easy-to-use set up guide that provides information, pictures, and links for materials I used to set up these individual morning bins along with EXTRA TIPS so that your mornings can run themselves!
