Circle Time is a wonderful opportunity to share short and meaningful learning experiences with preschoolers. Preschoolers thrive with routines. When they know what to expect from the day they are more open to learning. A regular and routine preschool circle time is an essential part of any preschool program.

Since you are dealing with short preschool attention spans it is important to keep circle time to no longer than 10 minutes. It should be filled with interactive activities and songs that will hold a preschoolers attention. Follow a standard pattern each day during circle time so that your preschoolers are not surprised by anything and as they learn what is included in circle time they are more likely to participate. If your preschoolers are having trouble sitting still, trying giving each of them a square of carpet to sit on and spread the squares far enough away from each other to allow for some wiggle room.

Preschool Circle Time Routine

1. Go through the calendar, focusing on the month, day, year and day of the week. It is important to have a classroom calendar that is bright and has big numbers and letters that are easy for the preschoolers to see. Use some sort of marker to let the preschoolers know where you are in the month. Seeing a visual helps them to understand the passage of time and learn how we track time throughout the year. You can do this by either putting a sticker on each day or by putting the number of each day up as you go through the calendar.

Have the preschoolers repeat as you tell them information about the date. You could say “Today is [day of the week], [month] [day of the month] [year]”. After introducing the current date, count from the beginning of the month to the current day while doing something physical to keep preschoolers focused.

For example, if it was September 5th, you jump up and down 5 times, while pointing to each corresponding number on the calendar.

Ask your preschoolers to find yesterday and tomorrow on the calendar.

2. Sing a simple song to help preschoolers practice the name of the days of the week or the months of the year and their order.

Days of the Week (sung to the tune of “Oh My Darling, Clementine”)
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday

Days of the Week (sung to the tune of the Adams Family Theme song)
There’s Sunday and there’s Monday. There’s Tuesday and there’s Wednesday. There’s Thursday and there’s Friday and then there’s Saturday. Days of the week (snap, snap). Days of the week (snap, snap). Days of the week. Days of the week. Days of the week.

Months of the Year (sung to the tune of  “Frere Jacque”

January, February
March, April, May
June and July
August and September
October and November
Then there’s December
Twelve months in the year

3. Talk about the weather. It is helpful if you have some sort of a weather wheel. These can be purchased at most teacher or easily made using a brad and some paper with pictures of the weather. It is best if this is located near a window so the preschoolers can look out the window and observe the weather. Have the preschoolers each tell you something about the weather that day. Is it raining? Is it snowing? What did it feel like while they were coming to school? What type of clothes did they have to wear?

4. Have a short discussion about the current theme. This should be very short, preferably less than 5 minutes. Circle time should be fun for preschoolers, not tedious. Pick on piece of information that relates to the preschool theme and discuss it with the preschoolers. Ask them questions that relate to the information and get them involved in the conversation.

5. Read a story related to your preschool theme. If your preschoolers are still sitting nicely, circle time is a great way to transition into story time. Preschool books can be a great starting point for science, art, and math activities later in the day.

Alternative – If you do not have anything related to the theme or have extra time, you can sing a simple song with the preschoolers or use another short activity. The Alphabet Song is a great extra activity or used as an end to circle time. Singing it often helps preschoolers become familiar with their letters and is a valuable pre-reading skill.

Doing Circle Time at Home

Circle time can be done at home as part of a homeschool preschool curriculum or as a way to introduce preschoolers to basic concepts before they enter a formal educational setting. You can follow the same techniques listed above when doing circle time at home.

You may want to purchase a basic preschool calendar, and several posters displaying the alphabet, numbers, colors and shapes. During back-to-school sales, many of these items can be found at dollar stores. We have a preschool poster set very similar to this one and it has served us well through years of having a preschool in our home and later homeschooling my own preschoolers.