Faye Posted February 19, 2003 Share Posted February 19, 2003 We've just started to introduce small group circle time in our setting (three groups of six children). Has anybody got a well-established structure for circle time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted March 18, 2003 Share Posted March 18, 2003 Apparently not, Faye - Don't give up though. The next group of practitioners we're concentrating on recruiting are the pre-school/nursery practitioners, who are harder to reach, but more likely to be Circle Time afficionados! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 18, 2003 Share Posted March 18, 2003 Hi Faye, I've got a handout from Uni that says that you should start by teaching some games and gradually build up to an introductory game, a round where everyone gets the chance to speak, an open discussion, time to celebrate achievements and a time to calm down and bring closure. Quality circle time by J Mosley is apparently good reading but I haven't read it myself. Hope this is helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 18, 2003 Share Posted March 18, 2003 Hi Faye, Having had Pre School and Nursery experience, I can give you a few ideas on circle time. Circle time can be used to discuss or show anything of interest, you can link it into the theme or topic of the week/month. For example, I have used circle time to start of a colour hunt in the classroom, i introduce the colour of the week or sometimes the shape of the week, we look at each other's clothes to see if someone is wearing that colour, I then ask the children to look around the room for something that is of the colour or shape, some children are able to find the colour and the shape, the children then bring their object back to the circle and each child has a turn to describe the object they have found. As you are doing your circle time as a small group, this is a great way for children to build on confidence speaking in a familiar group. Another idea is to play a describing game, adult starts of by describing one of the children or member of staff, example, colour of clothes, shoes, eyes, etc, do not say if it is a boy or a girl, the children have to guess who the person is, the one who gets it right, has a turn. Another idea is have the children sitting in a cirlce, ask them to cover their eyes, another adult removes a child very quietly and hides them, the remaining children then have to name the missing child, as the children get better at this game I take two or more out to hide them. Before the game starts, I explain to the children what we shall be doing, and if anyone does not want to hide then that is fine, but so far the children love the game. Circle time can also be used to discuss the weather, date, feelings and emotions. What clothes should we wear in different types of weather. The list is endless. We have a special area with cushions, there are enough cushions for each child to have one each to sit on and the staff member taking the circle time also sits on a cushion. Circle time for us usually lasts about 15 - 20 mins. Hope this helps. Lava40 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faye Posted March 20, 2003 Author Share Posted March 20, 2003 Thanks so much, lava40, you've given me some great ideas! It's difficult to know where to start but you've inspired me. Hope I can do the same for you sometime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted March 20, 2003 Share Posted March 20, 2003 Hi - So much interesting material here that I collated it into a brief 'Tips' article. You can find it here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 20, 2003 Share Posted March 20, 2003 Hi Faye, Glad to be of help. It might be an idea to decide on a specific time each day when you want to do circle time, that way the children get used to it and they will expect it as part of their routine, for example, you might decide to have cirlce time everyday after snack, or maybe after registration, the children will soon learn, they go to sit on the cushions in the library area, (for example) after snack. You could plan a weeks circle time activities ahead of time, allowing for flexibility, if a child brought something special in one morning, then that might not be on your weekly plan, but you would use that as your discussion for circle time. Hope that all makes sense. Lava40 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 5, 2003 Share Posted April 5, 2003 Hi Faye, Glad to be of help. It might be an idea to decide on a specific time each day when you want to do circle time, that way the children get used to it and they will expect it as part of their routine, for example, you might decide to have cirlce time everyday after snack, or maybe after registration, the children will soon learn, they go to sit on the cushions in the library area, (for example) after snack. You could plan a weeks circle time activities ahead of time, allowing for flexibility, if a child brought something special in one morning, then that might not be on your weekly plan, but you would use that as your discussion for circle time. Hope that all makes sense. Lava40 We have circle time after snack when the room is being cleared,each member of staff takes turns..When its my turn on a friday we do the days of the week,weather,if anyone has news and then I either bring in one of my doll puppets who gets the children to sing or a prop box which is filled with different items and the children take it in turns to choose something and think of a song. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alison Posted April 14, 2003 Share Posted April 14, 2003 In my setting we usually have circle time at the end of the session just before we hand out the coats and pictures I have found it best not to plan this part of the session it is only 10 minutes and we have mainly songs or a story.When my mind goes blank and I cannt think of a song I have a keyring with lots of tabs each tab has a song or activity idea and I keep this key ring in my pocket just handy for inspiration. or I ask the children for "any requests?". Some days the children sit down to the carpet and are in high spirits and it can seem impossible to get them to focus and listen but a calm quiet voice does wonders, (9 times out of 10) and on that 1 in 10 session when the quiet voice doesnt work we play "teddy bears" a simple version of simon says children want so much to please that they want to be the first to touch their heads, stand up, sit down, fold their arms etc they soon all start to join in and listen. The most important issue is being alert to the children and keeping their attention some times its nice to chat and share news other times the children like to choose some favourite songs or a book I try to give this time to the children to let them feel valued before they go home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 15, 2003 Share Posted April 15, 2003 Hi Alison, I love the idea of your 'keyring', I shall be creating one (when I get the time!?). I can really see the use for it, its sort of organised chaos! Thanks for that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helen Posted April 15, 2003 Share Posted April 15, 2003 Hi, I agree with Becky; the keyring is a brilliant idea! I think you've hit the nail on the head, Alison, when you say that you need to be alert to the children's needs, etc, and alter circle time accordingly. very often, I have just abandoned the game, story, or whatever I had in mind because I have less than half of them taking any notice of me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 16, 2003 Share Posted April 16, 2003 In The Thinking Child Resource Book I give recommendations for 'five best' books in a variety of categories. As the Resource Book won't be available for a few months, I thought it might be useful if I give the Circle Time suggestions here (not ranked in any order, btw) : Five books about circle time 1. ‘Quality Circle Time in the Primary Classroom’, Jenny Mosley, Learning Development Aids, Cambridge, 1996 2. ‘Circle Time’, Hannah Mortimer, Scholastic, New York, 1998 3. ‘Here We Go Round - Quality Circle Time for 3 to 5 year olds’, Jenny Mosley and Helen Sonnet, Learning Development Aids, Cambridge 2002 4. ‘Ring of Confidence’, Penny Vine and Teresa Todd, Learning Development Aids, Cambridge, 2002 5. ‘Time to Talk’, Alison Schroeder, Learning Development Aids, Cambridge, 2000 I list these books (and more) in categories, with direct links to purchase from Amazon. You can get there by clicking www.acceleratedlearning.co.uk I'm always interested in other books that people recommend for me to list on my site, so if anyone has favourites, let me know and I will research and add them. I earn a small fee from Amazon for linking to their site, which I use for hosting and keeping my site informative and up to date. Fresh suggestions for the book recommendations are always welcome so it doesnt get stale! Hope this helps, Nicola Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 20, 2003 Share Posted April 20, 2003 Hi Faye, I use circle time to begin everyday.Its settles the children down and keys their interest into the topic which could be anything from friendship to transport-i use it for PSHE a lot .There are many good games EG passing round a beanbag to give a child a turn to say how they feel,their favourite food ,something nice about the special child of the dayor whatever.Almost all of the kids in my reception class are EFL and this gives them the security to speak in a second language.I could go on for ages with different games but my typing is very slow!Good luck and have fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 7, 2003 Share Posted August 7, 2003 I've only just had time to read these posts since registering, but I have a few ideas for those of you who are still interested... I regularly use an object of some sort to pass around the circle. The child holding the object is the child the others need to listen to. A nice idea was to use a microphone as the object, lots of children like to pretend they are 'reporting'! If there are children in the circle who usually pass the object on rather than contributing puppets and masks can be used. Pretending that you are someone else can often make you feel less intimidated in a large group. We have also played games where the children have rolled balls across the circle to each other, either to help them learn names, or to emphasise someone who has helped them etc 'ie' the child rolling the ball could say 'Amie has helped me today' as they roll the ball to that person. We also like playing listening games. A child may be blind folded in the middle of the circle, or may turn their back on the circle and is asked to listen to some sort of sound. The child may be asked to say which instrument was played, or which direction they heard the sound come from. The children also like to disguise their voices! They would say something simple like 'hello fred' and the blind folded child would be required to say who they had heard. We also play phonics and maths games. but I won't go on any more!! I hope some of this might be useful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 7, 2003 Share Posted August 7, 2003 Christine, I like the microphone idea. I bet it helps a lot of children. Another method I've seen is to make a picture frame that the children hand around. They take turns to look through the frame to speak. It's fun and usually creates a few giggles! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 27, 2003 Share Posted August 27, 2003 Hello! I thought I'd add a bit about what we do for circle time at my setting. We are fairly structured in terms of how our sessions are laid out, registration, free play, circle time, snack time, physical play (outside whenever possible), singing and finally story time. Our circle time is usually linked into the theme of the week, we usually sit in the circle (although if our shape of the week is a square we have square time and sit in a square!!), we might talk about family, friends, safety, kindness, colours, shapes, where we live, what we like, appropriate festivals, we might play a game, we sometimes paint to music on huge pieces of paper, or make a story, or show and tell, we might do movement to music, a parent may bring in an instrument to show and play, guess the smell with covered pots of smelly things (!), identify shapes hidden in cloth bags, or an outside visitor may come in (road safety, mini-beasts, dentist etc etc), we might work on a few beginning letter sounds with the pre-schoolers, we really love introducing multicultural foods (we've all tried noodles, made pizza and tried it, exotic fruit) the list is endless. This usually lasts about 15 minutes in our setting. We ask that the children come into the circle and stop (talking, fidgetting) and they all pretty much respect this and actually sit down saying "we come into the circle and we stop"!!! We make it fun and very interactive. It's not us staff waxing lyrical for 15 minutes whilst the children gradually fall of their cushions from boredom! I think circle time is the most incredibly valuable time to watch the children in our care develop the skills that are going to be vital for them at school - ie listening and having the confidence to join in. We have a great team of staff and all bring in ideas at our planning sessions before each half term. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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