Circle Time for Preschool

Why is circle time important for preschoolers?

Circle time is a great way to review important information like days of the week and months of the year, introduce new ideas, and provide consistency to your day. If you have gym time on one day, art on another day, and music on a different day, but every single day starts and ends with circle time, it provides structure and security. A structured day is something preschool students thrive on.

How long should circle time be for preschoolers?

When you first start having a circle time, start small with just five or ten minutes. You can increase this time as your students become more accustomed to sitting still, listening, and enjoying this time together.

How to get preschoolers to sit for circle time?

The answer to this question is practice, consistency, and training. To begin with, you may only get kids sitting still for one or two minutes. Keep your circle time short, and gently insist that bottoms stay on the floor. To help with this, you can place small carpet squares or sitting spots for each student. As students show they are able to sit for a few minutes at a time, gradually increase what is expected of them.

Be sure to keep it fun and engaging so they want to stay! Gentle training can be through spoken words, placing more active children with a one-to-one caregiver who reinforces the desired behavior, holding a child on the lap, redirecting children away from toys and other activities, putting away distractions, or even using a special table for circle time.

How to make circle time fun for preschoolers?

The best way to make circle time for preschool students fun is to have fun yourself. Find interesting and different ways to introduce new concepts. Sing songs, enjoy doing the motions, read great books that you love as much as they will. Read and speak with enthusiasm, ask questions, let the preschoolers talk, and occasionally bring special interesting items to circle time to surprise your students and start conversations.

Circle Time Activities for Preschoolers

Preschool Songs.

Learning songs about numbers, letters, concepts, or themes. Calendar songs, opposites songs, or movement songs all work really well. Start with the same song each day to provide familiarity and comfort. Add a new song once a week or so, and rotate through different songs to keep students interested and review concepts. YouTube is a fantastic resource for fun and interesting learning songs for your preschool circle time.

Picture Books.

While your students are gathered around, mostly sitting and mostly quiet is a great time to read that special book related to your theme of the day or week. Pick really amazing books that you love because kids pick up on that!

Question and Answer Time

Review the concepts you’ve been learning together by asking your students questions and rewarding good answers with enthusiasm. Always reward cooperation with a smile and words of affirmation and you will have very cooperative students! “Thank you so much for sitting still today!” even when they haven’t done it perfectly will go a long way towards improving behavior.

Action Poetry or Finger Plays

These fun poems are great for teaching new concepts, giving your students a rich language experience, and connecting what you are learning about to physical movement. You can purchase a huge book of fingerplays with all kinds of themes.

Kid’s Yoga