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You are here: Home / Circle Time / The Best Preschool Circle Time Tips for Teachers

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The Best Preschool Circle Time Tips for Teachers

July 31, 2018 by Sheryl Cooper

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Inside: The best preschool circle time tips for teachers – questions and answers that will help make your school year more successful!
 
You’ve gathered the children together, so now what? Creating a preschool circle time can be a bit daunting for the new teacher. Well, at least it was for me! How long should it be? What books should I read? What about songs? What if they don’t listen? What if I lose them all?
 
In this post I hope to help you. After years of circle times, I’ve had my shares of “perhaps this isn’t working”. But when something did work, I took note. And did it again.
 
I’ve also added circle time tips and ideas from other teachers. If you are a seasoned teacher, what has worked for you? If you are a new teacher, hang on. You’ll soon find that creating a preschool circle time is not as difficult as it might feel right now.
 
 
The Best Preschool Circle Time Tips for Teachers
 

The Best Preschool Circle Time Tips for Teachers

Where should your circle time be?

Find a spot in your room that has enough room for all of your students to gather. We have a stool for each child to sit on, but mats work, too. (In the past we’ve used vinyl place mats.)

How long should your circle time be?

We start our year with a short circle time, just long enough for a good morning song and a short story. We eventually add the weather and, once a week, sharing. Depending on how focused the preschoolers are on that particular day, we average around 10 minutes for our circle time.

Related post: Brilliant Circle Time Strategies When Kids Can’t Sit Still

preschool morning meeting

What if you cannot get them to pay attention?

One important lesson I’ve learned with circle time is that if you have lost their attention, it’s okay to end it early. I’ve even stopped reading a book when it’s apparent they would rather be moving around or talking to each other. It’s okay. This is when we get up and dance to our collection of active music.

Another tip? Use props. I love creating visuals that keep the children engaged!

Make sure to check out our Songs and Rhymes props to use during your circle time!

Check out our favorite playlists – with lots of songs that would be perfect for circle time:

preschool songs

What are the do’s and don’ts of reading aloud?

Start with simple books and gradually introduce books with more words. Deborah from Teach Preschool has a wonderful post that shares what works and what doesn’t work when reading aloud to preschoolers.

Setting Up the Transportation Theme in the Toddler and Preschool Classroom

What activities are appropriate for 3 year olds?

Each day we have a class helper. That child looks out the window and reports the weather. Once a week we have a sharing person who passes around 1 item for everyone to touch. We will also do group learning activities. We save calendar time for the following year when the children are 4 and 5. Early Childhood News has some simple games you could try during your circle time.

More circle time tips the new preschool teacher will appreciate:

Circle Time Tips for Preschool and Pre-K Teachers (Pre-K Pages)

How to Save Circle Time (No Time for Flashcards)

Ten Tips for Circle Time (Teach Preschool)

Circle Time 101 (Preschool Inspirations)

The Best Preschool Circle Time Tips for Teachers
 
Preschool Songs & Rhymes Props
preschool song & rhymes pack #2
TPT fall props

 

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Filed Under: Circle Time, preschool, Teachers Tagged With: circle time, preschool, teachers

About Sheryl Cooper

Sheryl Cooper is the founder of Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds, a website full of activities for toddlers and preschoolers. She has been teaching this age group for over 20 years and loves to share her passion with teachers, parents, grandparents, and anyone with young children in their lives.

Previous Post: « How to Easily Manage Preschool Show and Tell
Next Post: Our Favorite Preschool Classroom Schedule »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Mary Catherine

    June 8, 2014 at 4:55 am

    So many great resources here for circle time! Thanks for including my rainbow rocks. 🙂

  2. Dani Motruk

    September 20, 2014 at 2:09 pm

    This link is not correct…
    Hand each child a number and go around the circle, asking what number it is. The cards are easy to make, as I show here.

    • Sheryl

      September 23, 2014 at 6:14 am

      Thank you so much for calling my attention to this, Dani! When I migrated from blogger to wordpress, some of my links got messed up. I have fixed it and will go through the rest of the post.

  3. Kaitlyn

    June 30, 2015 at 7:33 pm

    Thank you for sharing all of these great ideas! I teach circle time everyday and I am always looking for new ideas and games. I will definitely be using some of these ideas! They are so simple, yet they are so beneficial! Thanks again!

    • Sheryl

      July 21, 2015 at 11:17 pm

      You are very welcome, Kaitlyn! I love simple!

  4. Ene Ogbole

    August 18, 2018 at 7:09 pm

    I am so excited about linking up with you. I can’t wait to go through these materials and begin to explore. Thank you so much

    • Sheryl Cooper

      August 19, 2018 at 8:45 pm

      You are so welcome, Ene!

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