I got an interesting idea in my inbox this week from my blogging friend Kathleen at Growing Kinders.  She had the idea that she wanted to get rid of paper morning work and try something new . She decided that morning baskets were something she wanted to try and gave some examples in her blog post here.  I liked her idea almost immediately and started making a list of materials I could include in mine.  I really like the morning work I’ve been using–there’s not a thing wrong with it, but I also wanted my kiddos to have experiences reviewing ideas and concepts that we have learned about before–plus it saves paper!!  I pitched this idea to my student teacher and we jumped up, yelled “Go Team!” and began raiding the closets.

Here is what we came up with:

Basket #1 contains an ABC puzzle, roll a shape game, books, and an iSpy bag.

Basket #2 contains Brown Bear color cards and letter tiles, books, iSpy bag, and some fun candy corn playing cards

Basket #3 contains an iSpy bag, I can spell three letter words flip book, shape matching game, and books

Basket #4 contains number memory, books, a Chicka Chicka magnet board, and an iSpy bag with letters

Basket #5 contains a rhyming game, books, an iSpy bag, and some fall themed patterning cards

Basket #6 contains an addition game, books, Halloween themed pattern cards, and an iSpy bag with numbers.

We collected everything from my math and literacy cabinets.  I got the pattern cards from Scholastic book orders several years ago, the books are some of our old leveled readers, most of the boxed games came from Marshall’s department store (T.J. Maxx/Home Goods), and I made the iSpy bags last summer.  I plan on making more of them soon. 🙂

We tried to put at least one math and one literacy activity in each basket along with some books and an activity that required partner work.  Each table of 4 children will share one basket and the baskets will rotate daily.

I told my children that we would try them out to see how it works but that I needed their help to show me that they could be responsible in taking care of the materials.  I also mentioned that the children who eat breakfast would need to wait until they were done with breakfast to use the materials so they would not get milk and juice or syrup spilled on them.

What do you think of this idea and what are some other activities you would include?  Thanks to Kathleen for this wonderful idea!  I was tossing it around in my brain but couldn’t come up with anything, so thanks for bringing this to fruition!  I’ll let you know how it goes! 🙂

Kristen 🙂