Daily Circle Time
The daily routine in my program includes a morning circle time. The purpose of circle time is to introduce children to pre-k concepts using hands-on teaching meathods, songs, movement, fingerplays, and flannel board figures and stories. In addition to a daily concept, we also discuss the weather, calendar and name shapes.
During our calendar discussion, we talk about the shape of the "numbers". We have one child put up today's shape and we then count from 1 to that number. We discuss the current month and the days of the week. This helps the children with counting along with knowing the months and days of the week.
During our weather discussion, we have one child select and put up the appropriate weather shape to match the weather outside. We also dress a small paper doll with the appropriate clothes for the weather. This serves to make the children aware of the weather and label and dress for it appropriately.
Each month we have a different shape for our name shapes. During circle time, we sing a little song for each child and spell their names. This helps the children know their shapes and become familiar with spelling their names. In addition to the name shapes, I show or encourage each child to write their own names on each of their activity papers so that they will be able to write their names upon entry to kindergarten.
