Teaching with social distancing can provide some unique challenges. Supplies and manipulatives can no longer be shared, kiddos cannot just grab something off of the shelves for centers, and keeping students apart from each other is so tough. But with a little modification, and a whole lot of practice, social distancing in the classroom is possible! And these Student Supply Bins for Social Distancing can make all the difference!
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Student Supply Bins for Social Distancing in the Classroom
It goes without saying that having to keep kiddos six feet apart in the classroom is a struggle. And not being allowed to have communal supplies and manipulatives for center time is hard to wrap your head around.
But I’ve found a solution that works really well! Instead of shared supplies, I have individual supply bins for each student. These individual student supply bins have made social distancing doable!
Not only do these supply bins solve the problem of communal supplies, they also remove one of the biggest traffic areas where kiddos gather.

What Should Go In My Student Supply Bins?
So what should go in your supply bins? The real answer is, whatever makes your classroom work!
You can put as much or as little in these bins as you like! If you don’t want your kiddos to have to move from their seat for supplies at all, you can provide everything your students need for the day in their bins! Or you could just have a small bin for each student with individual baggies of manipulatives and supplies. It completely depends on how much movement you want to have in your room.
RELATED RESOURCE: Kindergarten Clip Cards BUNDLE

Supplies I Recommend
The supplies that I recommend putting in your student supply bins are:
- Crayons
- Pencils
- Scissors
- Glue
- Manipulatives (cubes, counting bears, counting discs, pom poms, etc.)
- Dice
- Dry erase board, marker, and eraser (Or socks work really well!)
- Playdough
- Clothespins
- Soap box with activities (Box Centers are perfect independent centers!)
- Books

You could also have folders or binders with printables for independent and small group work, or bins for math manipulatives and bins for literacy manipulatives.
The best part about these student supply bins is that there is no wrong way to do it! Try different things until you figure out what works best for the set up of your classroom!
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