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[…] Alright…a little homemade explore tub up first! I purchased these paper plates at the dollar store. I then placed the sticker dots on the each plate for numbers 1-10. The kiddos will use their fine motor tweezers to grab and place that many pom pom on each plate. Especially at the beginning of the year not all kiddos will be able to recognize their numbers so they can easily count the dots and then place the matching number of pom poms! Up next …this explore tubs just requires a set of $1 popsicle sticks and THESE freebie cards! I love these because the kiddos have to visually match what they see on the card to their own work…sounds easy, but is actually a trickier concept for the kiddos! These cards also work on shapes too! Again, working on fine motor skills. How else can we explore but with playdoh! In this tub I also have THESE freebie playdoh “I can” cards for the kiddos to generate ideas. I have found that even with playdoh the kiddos will eventually get bored so adding in the cards will help them to get new ideas…along with the cookies cutters! ? Moving along to the next explore tub and pretty much my favorite! Legos. Yes! Alphabet. Yes! This is another simple and I’m sure FUN explore tub! All you need for this tub is legos and THESE freebie alphabet cards! I laminated my cards and placed them on the metal ring! Here is another easy + effective explore tub to keep those minds and fingers busy! In this tub I placed a bowl of perler beads along with pipe cleaners! I did choose the larger perler beads I had so they would be easier to handle this time of the year! In this explore tub I placed my teddy bear cards and a bowl of teddy bears! The kiddos will get to play and work on their patterning skills! I purchased my cards, but recently came across a freebie set of teddy bear patterning cards HERE. I recently purchased this fun fine motor sorting activity HERE. However, in the years past I always just used a muffin tin, pom poms, and tweezers ALL from the Dollar Tree! Works just as good and is cheap! ? I also ran across this building cards/shapes HERE! Okay, these cards are not even about 3D shapes…these are for building critical thinking skills in those little minds! Even though these are purchased I have the perfect idea making something similar for cheap! I am also still planning to do it myself. I am going to take my wooden blocks and build structures, take pictures of them, and place them into a 3 ring binder. The kiddos will then get to be the architects and build the same structures they see in the book ? ? EXPLORE TUB POST #2 […]
I started doing exploration boxes instead of morning work, and need to swap them out soon. These ideas are great! Thanks!! 🙂
Hi Tara,
Could you share when you use these explore tubs? Are they a part of your literacy/ math center time, or a completely different choice on their own?
Thanks!
Yes I swapped read to someone for explore during daily five 😀
Tara
These look fun! I've done the hole punch; that was a favorite. I also have a ton of lacing cards, but no one ever wants to do those. Have you ever had anyone spill the beads? Just about everyday the tub gets tipped over and beads go everywhere! The kids love to look for them, especially when I'm teaching and they spot one across the room and feel the need to interrupt to say they found one!
This is perfect timing! I was just thinking it was time to swap out my explore tubs-thank you for the wonderful new ideas!!
I love your blog! I am prepping my tubs right now to use instead of morning work. I teach 1/2 day kindergarten so we don't have time for Daily 5. Will you continue to put more of your explore tub ideas on your blog please?
Awesome ideas! Thank you!
Great ideas. Do you have a picture of how you organize these so the kids can get them? Also, where is everything stored when not in use?
Hi there! In the post you’ll see some pictures of the centers stored in containers from the Dollar Tree! All of the items could be stored in those for the year especially the cards that are on the rings!