Circle time

[mlc1982]

What do you do for circle time? Is it the same every day or do you change it up?
I need ideas!

[waterloo day mom]

I'm really interested in what other people are doing. We have a story, put up the appropriate weather symbol on our chart, and sing some songs. I'd like to do more in terms of letter/numbers, but I feel like the babies would lose interest REALLY quickly. At what age do people start making the kids stay at the mat and not wander off?

[playfelt]

Until kids are about 2 they don't appreciate the other kids and group activities anyways as up to this time they are more into parallel play and doing their own thing. I do not rush them into circle time and even then when we do it we read a story and do activities related to the story that are me led such as fingerplays, games, matching and sorting - a chance to use materials that would be destroyed if I just left them out for general play. I do not do things like weather, calendar etc as they do not truely grasp all the concepts because things like calendar are not concrete so to me it is a waste of time till they are closer to age 4-5 - JK teachers can do it. Why waste time boring them any younger, lol. Once you take out things that have no meaning even younger children will sit for a story. Usually we all curl up for the story and then the younger restless ones leave and I continue with those that want to stay. The exception is that those over 2 1/2 must stay as this is their lesson time but younger kids are welcome to tag along if they want. The lessons for the younger kids are built into the play such as doing colours and counting while block building or playing with hotwheels cars.

[mom-in-alberta]

We don't do circle time at this point. I don't have the space set up yet the way it needs to be, and won't be able to until our family moves out of the basement suite in our home, hahaha.
When we do, I will be keeping it short and sweet, since my preferred age group is under 3 and the attention span is not really there yet between 1 and 3.
So I will do calendar (song about the months of the year or days of the week, etc). A story/song/poem about what we are talking about that week or month. And if they are still involved, or for those who are, an activity like puppets or a puzzle, etc.

[fruitloop]

I do circle time every day and disagree with Playfelt a bit about the under 2 group. I've had kids as young as 18 months sit for my entire circle time and participate to the best of their ability. It is really going to depend on your group of kids and what you're doing with them. I always encourage the kids at every age to sit on their letter mat but don't make the younger ones (under 18 months or so) stay if they are insisting on getting up to wonder.

Generally our circle time routine happens right after lunch and goes as follows...

First everyone finds their letter mat (I help those that don't know their letter) and we start with songs. We do a lot of hand motion songs because they tend to keep the kids of all ages engaged. After songs we do our letter of the month. I have the alphabet up on the wall and I start pointing to the letters and they yell STOP when I get to the letter. The kids seem to love this...lol. Then we sing our A, B, C's. Then we do our colour and shape of the month. I ask them if they remember what our colour is and then ask each child individually to find me something *insert colour here* in the room and do the same for the shapes. I usually have the shape (many of them) of the month hanging on the walls for them to find. Then we do our number of the month. I have a counting jellybean jar that I made hanging on the wall so I ask the kids if they remember what number we're learning. Then I pick a child to go up to the counting jar and put X amount of jellybeans in the jar and we all count with them and then we usually sing a counting song. After counting we dress my weather frog for whatever weather it is outside and then it's story time. I read them a story or 2 depending on how long the story is and then it's nap time after that.

[playfelt]

fruitloop I am going to assume you also have some older kids. What is the point asking a question of an 18 month old child that barely speaks. Yes they will sit, yes they will follow along but we really have to be careful if this is the best use of their time. When you have kids old enough to answer the questions, and lead the way for the younger kids, follow directions, that is great but does not work with just little ones. I guess my question would be if all of the kids in your group over age 2 were not there some day, how well would your routine work with just the little ones and no examples to follow. If you are expending too much of your time to do the leading, the pointing, the finding, the giving them the answers then there are other ways to teach the same skills that would have more meaning than doing a formal circletime.

[KingstonMom]

I like everyones ideas, I do not do circle time as yet because I have 2 15 month olds and a 2 1/2 year old, and like Playfelt says, mine at this age WOULD NOT stay for circle time at all.
I think the younger ones (2 and under) are best using their energy practicing their arge motor skills, dancing, running, crouching etc are far more relevant than counting skills etc. Just my opinion.
In a few weeks, I will be getting 2 four olds, so we will statrt something with my 2 1/2 yo and the 4 year olds, as they would benefit more from these circle time activities.
I sing (with a bit of help) the abc's, wheels on the bus, old macdonald etc about 10 times each a day it seems! My kids hear all kinds of songs, and we read counting books alot too. Even though the little ones are not old enough (and are not required) to sit still for songs and story time, I knlow that they hear it and are slowly grasping and memorizing songs, letters, numbers etc.

[fruitloop]

fruitloop I am going to assume you also have some older kids. What is the point asking a question of an 18 month old child that barely speaks. Yes they will sit, yes they will follow along but we really have to be careful if this is the best use of their time. When you have kids old enough to answer the questions, and lead the way for the younger kids, follow directions, that is great but does not work with just little ones. I guess my question would be if all of the kids in your group over age 2 were not there some day, how well would your routine work with just the little ones and no examples to follow. If you are expending too much of your time to do the leading, the pointing, the finding, the giving them the answers then there are other ways to teach the same skills that would have more meaning than doing a formal circletime.

Yes my group was older...2, 3, and 4 year olds. Right now my oldest of the group is 2 so yes, I have changed it a bit. We do still sit and sing songs but they're not old enough to grasp the rest of it...well, except my 2 year old who seems to be a very smart cookie and know all of her colours already. You are right, it is lost on the youngers ones but my 17 month old will sit for a lot of it and participate the best she can. You make changes and adjust things accordingly. I just had a change over of kids and have a younger group now so a lot of things are put on hold for a few months until they can grasp the concepts of it all. I was refering to a bit older group with young ones mixed into it. I do my circle time the way I do because I do a kindergarten readiness program and in kindergarten kids have to sit for a certain period of time.

[fruitloop]

I also have 18 month olds that can talk quite well, so are very much capable of communicating to some extent with this. I also want to add that I'm not doing this for hours on end...this takes about 20 minutes at most so it's not like the whole day is like this...20 minutes is not a lot of time at all. With all my older kids gone, my routine works just fine, it's just changed a bit to accommodate the age group. I'm their example of what they're suppose to do just like I was the example of the older ones when they first started. Of course i'm not asking a 12, 15, or 18 month old to remember a colour, shape or number nor am I asking them to point it out. Right now they are learning to participate in a group activity and learn to sit for a short period of time. it's all a learning process for them like any thing else.

[mlc1982]

Thanks for some ideas.
I have a 17 month old who will sit for most of circle time right now. He gets excited when we sing or read. I also have a 15 month old who will probably not be ready to sit like that for many months yet. Every kid is different and you don't really know until you try.

[zen39]

My little ones love circle time and most of them are little, 13 months, (2) 18 months and 2.5 year old. As soon as they hear my little bell ring, the 18 months old say circle...and they come sit on my carpet. I've never made any child have to sit, if they choose to wander around, that was fine by me...but all of my kids come to circle even the 12 month old...i think she sees the others and now she too enjoys the time spent there.

I have a puppet that always starts off circle time and sings to them and gives each of them a hug and kiss...they especially love this.

We do a little felt board story and sing a song and that's it. Very short.

So I'm completely for circle time at this age...if you make it short, interesting and fun...any child will enjoy it.

We keep it really short but fun. I do a calendar. They love to help point to the numbers, they each take turns sticking on the day. For the weather, we put pretend binoculars to our face to look out the window. The young ones just enjoy making funny faces when i say is it snowing today? And we scrunch up our face and say "no it's not snowing today".

I've often found that it's me getting up from the floor first and not them, sometimes they sit there wanting another felt board story...they really enjoy those.

[playfelt]

For younger kids that don't really sit for circletime remember that it doesn't all have to be done in a block of time. Spend 5 minutes reading a story and then singing a song or doing a fingerplay related to the story then send them off to play again. Later call them all to the feltboard for some rhymes and then send them off to play again, set up a group game and then gather everyone to play. A circletime done in 4x5 minute segments has more meaning than a 20 minute block to the little ones. I tend to do a concept at each one so one session might be reading a story about insects and then singing itsy bitsy spider with actions, another would be a shape matching file folder game but me supervised so no one chews on the pieces, another session would be at the feltboard doing counting, sorting, matching, a short story, etc. I look for opportunities to do the "lesson" where they are playing so learning the skill of sorting/matching one to one correspondance can be done in the kitchen area making sure there is a matching cup for each saucer or dividing up a board into rectangles and making sure there is a hot wheels car parked in each spot. We count the cars, name their colours, decide which row has the most cars in it. All of the same skills we would be trying to teach in a formal sit down circletime but they are learned in the middle of play instead.