Morning Stations Take 2

Straws and Connectors are a favorite building material at our house! My 5 year old will even nap in his structures!

It has been a lot of fun setting up morning stations for my son. And being able to sleep in an extra 30 minutes or so really makes the effort worthwhile!

Read my first post here, which explains exactly what goes into our morning stations.

Over the last couple of weeks, my son has woken up to the following activities laid out for him!


Tooth Books with Tooth Man Collage activity ~ to celebrate his wiggly tooth. (Of course it's been loose since January but it's VERY wiggly now. So hopefully any day it will fall out!)

Estimation Station - he counts the objects in the containers and then later, when the rest of the family is awake, he asks each of us to estimate. The funniest thing is when he asks his 2 year old sister because her response is, "1,2, 1,2 blocks."

Straws and Connectors building materials set up in the living room, with arrows leading the way from his bedroom to the building site!

Bug Identification chart and bugs in jars he had collected the previous day. (Apparently when Grandpa gave him 20 empty pill bottles my son thought everyone needed to have a bug to live in it!)

Watercolors - really easy set up and it's fun to see what he creates.

Hundred Chart Puzzle, which I found here: http://www.mrswillskindergarten.com/2011/06/math-work-stations-blog-party-chapter-6.html

Hundreds Chart puzzle

Tangrams that I bought from Amazon and then printed designs from this website: www.tangrams.ca


Pattern Blocks activity made by Melissa and Doug, and harder templates to build from which I found here: http://www.mrswillskindergarten.com/2011/07/math-work-stations-blog-party-chapter-7.html


"I Can Read" tub of books for him to read aloud to his over sized stuffed dog, Pluto.

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What great ideas do you have for Morning Stations? There are still almost 2 months worth of mornings to fill with creative & quiet learning stations. I'd love to hear your suggestions!

Morning Stations

My son is an early riser and the rest of the family isn't. So I have to find something (other than television) to keep him busy in the morning. Over winter break I found that leaving a "Surprise Project" in his room for him to complete in the morning is the perfect solution.

This summer my plan is to create new morning stations for him each day. The little bit of time it takes the night before to set it up pays off when I get to sleep in a bit longer. The bonus is that my son is also learning in the process!



My criteria for the 'Surprise Projects':

•  my son needs to be able to complete the activity 100% independently. Otherwise he comes to my room for directions or advise, which defeats my objective of sleeping in!
• needs to be a quiet activity 
• little to no prep work for me
• at least a wee bit of learning should occur 

 My son's criteria for the 'Surprise Projects':

•  has to be a surprise, "it's no fun if I know what it's going to be" 
• should come with a morning snack, preferably the mini boxes of cereal that I never buy.

 

This week our surprise projects included: 

1. Alphabet puzzle that is self checking
2. Geo board wtih LOTS of rubber bands
3. Card Making Station for Father's Day ~ smelly markers and alphabet stamps for added interest
4. Coupon clipping - possibly my son's favorite task so far!
5. Crayola Activity Center with dry erase markers and a sheet of animals to learn to draw
6. Dot-to-dot (with numbers 1-50)
7. Estimation game and bean counting ~ who knew he could count to 235! (using 2 hundreds charts of course)

I've had a lot of fun coming up with the projects, but I wonder if I am creative enough to make something different every morning. Your suggestions are welcome!