Circle Time Planner

For those of you using this site for homeschooling your preschoolers or running a preschool, this is how your daily Circle Time should be structured.

Circle time is kind of like a morning meeting with the kids. It should come after the children have had their breakfast and have had some free play time so that they are ready to pay attention.

You should have some daily items that are discussed each day and then discuss what is coming up in their lessons that day. Most children this age benefit greatly from knowing what is coming up.

DAILY:



Greeting Songs -
Sung to Mary Had a Little Lamb

We welcome you to school today,
School today, School today,
We welcome you to school today,
Please come in and play.
We're glad to have you here today,
Here today, here today.
We're glad to have you here today.
Yes, it's a special day!

Sung to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Let's see who is here today,
Who has come to join our play?
Everyone sit close at hand,
Say your name, then you can stand,
Let's see who is here today,
Who has come to join our play?


Calendar - Talking about the calendar is a great daily activity! This teaches math concepts and helps them to understand linear time. There are great pre-made teaching calendars you can buy, but (as I am sure you can tell) I like to make my own! I made mine using a large plastic poster frame. I printed out and laminated the Months, seasons, basic weather, days of the week, and holidays. I used paint chips (free!) as the days of the week. Butcher paper is the background that I glued the paint chips to. I also glued the days of the week to the paper.
Everything else goes on the plastic on the outside.  The top middle is the month, the left is the weather and the right is the season. Below that I put "Yesterday Was ________     Today Is _________     Tomorrow Is ___________" so that we can discuss those concepts and have something to change out everyday. I should probably mention I had made 2 sets of the days of the week for this reason!
Write in the numbered days in dry erase marker and then add any holidays. Oh, and I used Velcro dots for everything so it is easy to change anything out as needed.

 Movement - Incorporating a fun little exercise each morning is a great way to keep their focus! Have a routine such as touching your toes, twisting your waists, clapping your hands, and hopping up and down.

LESSONS:

 Use this time to introduce the kinds of lessons they will be doing today. Get them excited! It is a good time to read a story or poem or sing a song from the day's lesson. Let them know, "Later we will be doing a cooking activity and we are going to make our snack ourselves!" This will keep them interested and motivated throughout the day.

Talk about the letter of the week. Show them the letter, pronounce the letter, then talk about words that begin with that letter. If you are working on letter groups, work on those! Get them involved. Ask them if they can think of words with the letters you are focusing on. It is very helpful to use a visual aide, such as a posterboard with the letter and objects which begin with that letter!

Having a daily schedule plan is a great idea. This way the children always know what to expect. Review the day's plan with them and talk about what they will be doing. If today is the Science Experiment Day, let them know. In order to reinforce the concepts of "today", "tomorrow", etc, you can also discuss that tomorrow you will be doing a paint craft (or whatever!).