CraftyMom 07:30 AM 05-07-2014
What do you do for circle time? I need to change it up.
Good morning song, pledge, calendar (months/days/date/yesterday was, today is, tomorrow will be), 10 commandments, rules reciew, weather, phonics, singing and dancing, discussions about our theme and writing what they say on board, reading books, word wall, etc.
I vary it by day now so we aren't doing the same thing. Only a few components never leave the line up.
Weather, date, day & month, alphabet letter review, learning concepts of the week, daily affirmation, songs and fingerplays. Mix it up and as pp said, some are daily. It sounds like a lot but we make it like a game and combine some things. We are in circle time for a half hr. We are up/down and moving around so they don't sit the whole time.
daycare 08:10 AM 05-07-2014
circle time at my house is always pretty consistent. the kids know exactly what we are going to do and when each and every day.
we start out with the pledge
sing days of the week and then we jump, clap, stomp ______that many times. We then will ask if today is may 7, what does a 7 look like. we will then draw a 7, take the 7 calendar piece and play a game like hot potato with it.
Good morning name tags with song. Then we clap out the syllables in every persons name.
dancing to some tunes
Read out loud, we read the same book for 5 straight days. Before I read the book I have a little bag and I hide something in it that is related to the book we are about to read. so lets say I am going to read about farms, I might hide a toy cow inside the bag. We sing a song and try to get all of the kids to guess what is inside my little bag.
After we have all had a guess about what is in my bag, I will ask someone to pull the item out. THen we define what it is. It's a cow. I will ask each child by pulling their name tag what do you know about cows. If they are younger, I will say what sound does a cow make, etc.
If the name of the book is on the FARM. I will do a small song called letters have names and will write on the white board about the letter F. Then when we read we will be sure to point out all the words that start with the letter F.
sing old mac donald
Then we will read out book. After the book is over we will break down into centers.
after centers we go back to circle time for zoo phonics
childcaremom 08:55 AM 05-07-2014
My group is on the youngish side (oldest is 2.5).
We do our greeting song. Talk about what day it is and the weather.
Sing songs of my choosing (learning songs, fingerplays, etc). Felt board story if I have one for that day.
Sing songs of their choosing, they each get to pick one from our song wall.
Talk about our word of the week and review the letters, do one activity related to the word, theme, etc.
Do our morning stretches and then yoga stories.
Depending on the moods of everyone, I may do our stretches and yoga first, then our songs and activities.
jenboo 09:29 AM 05-07-2014
My DCKs range from 18 months to 5 years...Well there is a 4 month old but she sleeps during circle time.
Our circle time consists of reading books (each child picks one for me to read to the group...so 5 books. most are really short). Then we sing songs. Then we will have some kind of discussion about what we are learning about which leads into some type of activity.
Kelly 07:32 AM 05-08-2014
I only have 1 dck right now (2-yr-old boy) and kind of have trouble doing circle time. It just seems awkward somehow with just one kid.
misslori50 10:13 AM 05-08-2014
we dont
CraftyMom 10:50 AM 05-08-2014
Thanks for the input.
My dck's now are all 3 and under, not much attention span (aside from the 3 year old, he loves it)
A lot of times I skip circle time and just let them dance
Sometimes I do a story and a song and then they're off to something else so I just end it
Unregistered 01:24 AM 05-10-2014
Calendar-days of the week song, then I begin to recite the days and when I come to the present day of the week I whisper it and the kids yell...Friday or whatever day it is.
I do if yesterday was the 8th, today must be the.......
Story time, which lots of the time is a puppet/prop story or a flannel board story or activity.
I also have my three drawer bin in my circle time area. It is filled with fun, kid approved, hands-on activities revolving around letters, shapes, colors. These I use when the mood strikes!
I have a song board made from a pocket chart. I have different monthly songs. I have each song on an index card. The side facing out has stickers or a picture representing the song. The back has the words. The Super Star picks the dongs for the day.
I still do the "old school" child of the day or super star instead of a helper chart where all the kids get a job for the day.
Our super star waters the plant, is line leader, picks the song, get to pick the plate they want for lunch ( I have those sectioned, colorful plates from Target with the pictures), does the calendar, etc.
Unregistered 01:27 AM 05-10-2014
Oh, once a week we do our weekly reader and also other days we have simple, quick discussion/lessons on our theme.
Laurel 01:44 AM 05-10-2014
Don't do circle time here.
Laurel
Josiegirl 03:01 AM 05-10-2014
I'm glad to see that some don't do circle time. I always felt like I should and have tried to in the past. But for one reason or another, it didn't work out well. We talk about lots of stuff during breakfast, read stories then, do our calendar(when we remember).
Unregistered 11:30 AM 05-10-2014
We do circle time two days a week, along with a preschool curriculum. The other days we have a structure to our day but it's more flexible. I like doing both, and the kids have adjusted well to the weekly routine.
For opening circle:
Sing Good Morning song
Introductions using our full names
Calendar, including day, month, date, year, season
Weather felt board
Sharing Time - kids bring an item related to our letter of the week
Book
Discussion
For closing circle:
Discussion - what we're doing this week
Goodbye song