Circle time suggestions? (3-6yr olds)

[leighi123]

I'm starting a little homeschool group that will meet once or twice a week for 3-6yr olds.  

We are going to have a theme (probably monthly or something), do a little circle time at the begining, and then have 'trays' with activites for the kids to work on either individualy, or in small groups, and then a closing activity and thats it!   Mainly its an oppertunity for the kids to work together on some things and for the parents to share ideas.  The activites are all hands on, fun little activites that will be based on the main theme.  We will also have a themed sensory box for the kids to play in!   

So anyway, I need ideas on how to organize circle time, which I guess should take place at the begining of class.

Some ideas I had: 

-read a story (related to theme)

-roll a ball to each kid, they say their name as they roll it back (we do this at library story time and the kids love it!)

- a song with movements to it (such as Hap Palmer type stuff)

Not sure what else would be good....  And I'm not sure what order to do things in (sense some involve sitting still, and some involve moving around).   Also, what about when kids/parents are first arriving?  Have them all sit down right away or arrange for an activity kids can just jump in on until everyone is there.   

I'm anticipating around 6-10 kids if everyone shows up. 

Any other ideas for a theme based preschool/kg homeschool group? (as far as how to organize things?  I have lots of ideas for actual theme activities!)

[Tjej]

That sounds really fun.  I should set something like that up in our area next year.

We did a music/movement group with finger plays and songs with actions this last year (it wasn't a homeschooling thing, just a "whoever wants to come that lives around here" thing).  I found that it does really depend on which kids are there if they can handle a story read aloud.  Some read-alouds with a lot of actions worked, but regular ones that were exciting and had big pictures still had a hard time keeping some of the kids engaged.  My group was younger (0-5, mostly 2-5 and heavy on the 2 end), so that might have been part of it.  Library story time around here is often a gong-show too, so I knew to expect it. 

I had them play with toys when they came in and then we sang the "clean up" song and sat in a circle and did our stuff (welcome song, finger plays, songs, dancing with ribbons, puppets, musical instruments...), then broke with a short book and snack (and more free play if their parents wanted to stay a little longer).  Dancing with ribbons you really need more room than circle time gives, but if you have the space it's pretty fun.  I tied ribbons on shower curtain rings (fun but not dangerous).

I would think that having an activity like play doh or a big set of blocks out would work for the beginning instead of just random toys like we had.  It's hard to just start because people with small children (in my area, anyway) are often late and unreliable about showing up, even when their kids really like it and they say they do too - kids get sick, stay up too late the night before, etc...  So I felt that leaving a 10 minute window of time (5 minutes before I expected them and 5 minutes after) was sort of necessary, and the kids needed something to do during that time.

Tjej

[etsdtm99]

i just started a similar group! (same age and size)  we've been meeting for about a month once a week (well, on 3 off 1 or so) .. we have a theme each week or sometimes the same theme 2 weeks in a row or related themes - we've been doing a story and then stations (craft, books, and soemthing else like a puzzle, sensory box etc) we're still working on how to make things run smoothly .. so far we've only been doing the story for that part but i like your ideas about making it more of a 'circle time' - things you could add - days of the week/calendar song/talk etc., ABC song, song about seasons and what season it is. (with the calendar/day of the wee songs you can sing them and shout or whisper the day/month that it is)

we havent had much of an issue with people being late, but we mainly try to keep the kids together in a small area without much to do because when they started playing they didn't want to stop  .. we encourage them to say hi to their friends - once or twice we've had a small craft to do when they came in but most of the time we have more of their attention if we do the story first.

[BetsyS]

We do this at library story time.  They have a little verse about "welcome to all our friends" that everyone says together.

At home, we start our day with a little circle time, too, and we say a weekly Bible verse and yearly memorization project (we're doing the Lord's prayer) together.  I like that the repetition is easy and no-pressure, and they pick it up quickly.  I admit that I completely stole the idea from both story time and my own kindy memories (where we recited the Lord's prayer and the 23rd Psalm everyday; I'm 36, and I still remember them both).

[Mama Shifra]

I have a book (unfortunately out of print, but many libraries may have it) called Toddlerobics by Zita Newcome.  It is a book portraying a toddler exercise class (with really cute pictures) exercising to a rhyme.  I would read this book and exercise with the children.  It was great for getting the wiggles out.  Then I would do rhymes and fingerplays with the children like "The Wheels on the Bus", "Pat a Cake", "The Entsy, Wensty Spider", etc. There are many books of songs and fingerplays for children that you can cull from songs.  (I found most of them from the book Baby Games by Elaine Martin).  Having a story is good too.  For the transition into the class, you may want to have markers or (I would strongly suggest) crayons for the kids to do while everyone arrives.

[leighi123]

Thanks for the ideas.  

I do think that some sort of something to do when the kids first arrive is a good idea, to entertain as people come in and get settled.   And then I like the idea of a little song/poem thing to gather them for the circle and then have a story, maybe instead of me singing , that could be the point where we do the "active" song (i.e the Hap Palmer type stuff), and then put the beanbags or whatever away for the story.  

Doing stations is a good idea too!   I was thinking I'd just bring several trays of activites, and let kids choose which they want to do and for how long, I guess it would depend on the kids ages/attention span to see if I could do that in a little bit more organized way so they kinda rotate around.  I could have more trays than kids, so kids can skip if one is too hard or they don't like it.  

Does anyone have a good idea for a closing activity?   We would clean up the trays, and then maybe a goodbye song?