Centers -- During Social Distancing? HALLLP!

So, one of the BIGGEST things I am freaking out about with all of this COVID nonsense is CENTERS. How in the world are we supposed to allow our students to play in centers when A) they can't share materials B) they have to stay "six feet apart" (get real....in classrooms of 20+??) and C) I can't think of a third thing right now, but I am certain that I will. Y'all, for real I cannot deal with all of these restrictions. I can't even begin to wrap my brain around how this is going to look. Ugh. But, we shall press on and we shall do whatever we need to do to make sure our babies get what they need! 

Morning Tubs are life-savers for me. I use morning tubs for a variety of reasons. The kids look forward to them, they sneak in extra fine motor practice, it allows me to get the "morning business" done, and it also gives my students time to work together -- which is SO important in Kindergarten. Ugh, I don't even know where to start with breaking down how wrong these CDC guidelines for opening schools really are. Not that I don't think the safety thing is important, but that's a whole different conversation.

So what do we do? Our students NEED to be able to play with stuff. We cannot ever expect them to sit at desks all day, facing the same way, working on worksheets. Ick. But, I think I have a pretty good solution for morning tubs. YAY! I have seen these little "mini bins" as centers before, so it's really nothing new -- but I am implementing them in a different way. Each child will have their own individual bin and you will simply rotate them every 3-5 days (depending upon how fast your students go through the activities). Sanitizing the materials at the end of the week is just a matter of dumping the materials into a bucket of bleach/water mixture and letting them soak. (Or your preferred sanitization method; there is no judgment on this blog.)  So far, my Name Edition Mini Morning Bins are complete, but I have some ideas for ELA and Math Mini Morning Bins that I am working on as well. The Name Edition is 100% editable and includes some really cool fonts to help students build their names with their manipulatives!

Included in each bin will be:

1) Task Cards, individualized for each student -- there are 7 task cards altogether for each student.

2) Individual Mini Activity Book, with 8 pages of activities for each student

3) 1 set of manipulatives (which will coincide with at least 2 of the activities included in the task card set), of the teacher's choosing.

You can also choose to include markers, pencils, etc. -- or you can just have your students use their own supplies to complete the activities in their Mini Book.

Here are some pics of what's included in this pack:

Mini Activity Book:

 Task Cards

Materials needed include things like pattern blocks, cubes, letter beads, pom poms, colored transparent chips, and Play-Doh (the theory here is that each student would have their own tube of Play-Doh)-- all things that you likely have in your classroom already! 

I am getting ready to head up to school for the first time in a REALLY long time to work in my classroom getting these things set up and ready. I don't know if I'm excited, scared, nervous -- but I know it's gonna feel a little strange to be in there! 

If you would like to check these out, they are available now on TpT.

Happy Social Distancing!