Fun Days-Teddy Bear Picnic

We often have different “themed” days in some classrooms.  Pajama day is always a fun one, and popular.

One day, however, I saw a great day in a classroom that almost made me wish I was still a lead teacher in the classroom just so I could implement it…almost, I love what I do.

They had a Teddy Bear Picnic day!

What did this entail?  Many FUN activities full of intentionality!

Everyone brings in their teddy bears.  If someone doesn’t have a teddy bear, that’s okay because the teacher had LOTS of extras!  If they forgot or didn’t have one, they were able to pick one to be theirs for the day.

The teddy bears are the children’s “students” for the day and the get to/must bring them around and share their activities with them. 

In the blocks, teddy bears were the receivers of beds made just for them…to size. 

In the dramatic play area, well, what teddy bear doesn’t LOVE coffee, cake, and plastic pizza?

During circle, they sat in a circle according the the teddy bears size!   This was a great math activity to start off and then having the responsibility of “keeping your teddy bear quiet” brought a new attention span to even the most wiggly child.

Circle time consisted of reading/singing the Teddy Bear Picnic book and going around the circle introducing the teddy bear to the rest of the group (name, favorite food, age).

At one of the tables, there were pieces of fabric, scissors, and patterns to make clothes for their bears…if they wanted.  There was one teacher close by to HELP the children stitch the things together with fat needles and thread.  Yes, the teacher allowed them to SEW with REAL needles!  Awesome practice in trusting the children!

At another table, if they so chose, the children had a picnic making activity.  Teddy bears and their owners spent time making sandwiches (math/patterning, fine motor, reading recipes), filling baggies with carrots (counting), and filling baskets with small group numbers of sandwiches, carrot bags, applesauce cups, plastic spoons, paper cups, napkins, plates, and pitchers of milk (community, counting, sorting, spacial awareness).

During outdoor time, teddy bears rode on tricycles going through obstacle courses, built sand castles, and went on…wait for it…a BEAR HUNT!  It was an awesome obstacle course!

Lunch was a picnic out on the grass!

Nap time was a breeze for the simple matter that the children didn’t want to wake their bears.

It was an awesome day!

What kind of fun days do you have?

The surprising activity

I had to sub in a classroom the other day and had a group of children who are known for NOT joining in circle time.  I knew that circle would have to be active, engaging, and a full body experience.

We started with Head-Shoulders-Knees-and-Toes (forwards and backwards and super-duper-fast!).

We went to the Dinosaur song (lots of roaring and yelling, but ends on a quiet note).

We quickly did the calendar and EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM participated as we read the pattern and counted how many.

We talked about the letter of the week (Z).  We practiced writing it in the air with our fingers.

I looked out into the environment and noticed that the assistant teacher was not yet done setting up the environment.  So, quick, I had to come up with another activity that would take up some time.

One child, Jacob, was sitting right in the middle of circle.  I told him, “Jacob, lay down.  Make yourself very very straight!”  I helped him get in a perfect straight line and told him to stay there.

I went to the next active child and had him lay with his head right next to Jacob at a 45 degree angle.  Then I chose another child to do the same at his feet.

The one child left who was active and was by this point standing next to me, I said, “What do they look like?”

The letter z!

Good job!

Nope, classroom not ready yet.  Quick, what will be next…oh, wait!  They are ALL asking for a turn!

We made the letter Z with their bodies 4 times!  They loved it!  They totally surprised me!

A group that is very active and has no interest in interacting with each other just yet LOVED this activity!

Have you ever had an activity that surprised you at how well it worked?

Circle Time

Circle time should be fun!  It should be interactive!  It should be about engaging the children and exciting them about learning.

It should NOT be about children sitting around “criss-cross-applesauce hands in your laps”.  It is NOT about them sitting perfectly quiet listening to you.

If you want to get children to come to circle, make it fun and active!  If you want to get those 3 year olds to come sit down, don’t ask them to sit!

Start circle with something like Head-Shoulders-Knees-and-Toes, do it fast, super fast, backwards, and finally, really quiet.  This will get their wiggles out and then tone it down to a calmer level.

At this point, ask them to sit, and move to something else a bit active, but not too active.  I like the dinosaur song where they ROAR really loud and then the dinosaurs go to sleep.

It is very active and loud, but it then ends on a quiet note. 

Then keep the tone a bit quiet.  Slowly pull out the book and introduce it.  Allow the children to read along with you if they know the words.

It is all about participation at this age!  If they are not allowed to participate and are expected to sit quietly and attentively, then they will not do it!

Circle time should be loud, fun, and engaging!  It’s not about the teacher being on stage…it’s about the children LEARNING and, most importantly, learning to ENJOY learning.

So, if you want a three year old, four year old, two year old to come to circle, you need to make it fun and engaging…stop setting the expectations for the preschoolers at a level that you would expect from a 5th grader!

What is your favorite way to get the children to circle?  What is your favorite circle time activity?  An even better question is, what are your children’s favorite circle time activity?

It’s not a race

The other day I did a training on circle time for one of the centers.  There was a need for me to do this because, although they had all the components to circle there, the children were not interested at all.  There may have been 4 to 5 children joining circle each day.

The thing is, that these teachers had EVERYTHING that SHOULD have had the children running over.  They had awesome fun songs.  They choose amazingly engaging books.  They even have some fun activities to be included like taste tests, group games, and one even had the group draw a picture of a body with each child choosing a different part of the body.

The problem?  They all were racing through circle time.  It was almost like they were racing to see who could get through circle the fastest.  A circle that should have taken 15 to 20 minutes given all the activities that were involved, was taking less than 10.  I’m not even exaggerating. 

Children weren’t joining circle because it wasn’t inviting to them.  For some, it was over stimulating at the pace it went.  For others, it wasn’t personable enough.  Those who stayed at circle were those children that just kind of go with the flow of the teachers every day.

The problem was that the children wouldn’t sit for long so the teachers tried to get in as much as they could while the children were sitting.  The children got less interested because of the pace.  Do you see the problem?  It’s an endless cycle.  I think if I hadn’t come in to help those teachers may have tried to squeeze 20 minutes of activity into less than 5 minutes.

Not to worry, Jenni to the recue!  Circle time is at a much more reasonable pace and the children are enjoying it so much better!

Circle Time Routine-continued

Yesterday we looked at gathering time, today we are going to look at circle time. Remember, at the gathering time we did:
Roll call, weather, calendar, flag salute, and question of the day

Circle time is reserved for those daily lessons that are different. Basically, what concept are we focusing on this week and how am I going to discuss that with the group. This is the general Circle Time outline:
Gathering Song
Concept Game
Book
Lesson
Dismissal

This is the same routine no matter the age, but the length will differ depending on the age; and of course the depth of the lesson as well.

First, the gathering song. This is the place where you grab their attention. Maybe it's another roll call song. Maybe it's a very active song that pulls them in. One of my favorites is ram-sam-sam. I also like head shoulders knees and toes. I start off singing it normal. Then I have the group sing it really LOUD! Then we sing it really fast. Then real slow or real quiet. I always end it in such a way that everyone is sitting and listening intently.
Then we do a concept game. This can be as simple as singing icky-sticky bubble gum where things get stuck to different parts of the body. Or, play a matching game where you have different colored bowls and pass out beanbags and have each child take a turn tossing the bean bag into different containers. Really what you are doing is teaching the children to wait their turn in the group, though they are also learning a concept at the same time.
The we read the book.
After the book, I point out the vocabulary words of the week in the book and we discuss what they mean. Then we have our lesson for the day; whatever that is. Again, this isn't so much a matter of teaching a lesson so much as the children learning to increase their attention span paying attention to the teacher and sitting in a group without disturbing others.
Last is the Dismissal. This is also always some sort of transition game; again to teach them to wait their turn and follow directions and routines.

Note, whichever book I read, I read the same book all week. I may change it up and read different versions of the same book. For example, if we were reading Goldilocks and the Three Bears, I might bring in different versions. I also might not read the book everyday, but might do a storytelling rendition or a flannel story or have the children act it out. As long as they get the experience of the book, that's what matters.

So, this is what a typical circle would look like with me:
Gathering Song: Ram-sam-sam
Concept Game: Simon Says
Book: Parts by Tedd Arnold
Vocabulary Words: Panic and Brain (Panic means a sudden feeling of fear; Brain is the soft matter in our head that helps our bodies function) These are the definitions that I use with the children. Then we use them in a sentence. By the end of the week, they should be able to use them on their own in regular conversations
Lesson: Discuss particular parts of the body (maybe joints or muscles) and talk about where they are and what they do.
Dismissal: Crawl in a box

Are there any questions from these last two days?

Circle Time Routines

I got an interesting questions from Penny and thought you could all benefit from it. She wrote:

Hi.I was very interested in your entry about circle time length. I teach Year 1 students and sometimes find that the circle time really stretches over a long period if you include all six elements: check in, mixer, activity, debrief, energiser, check out. Is this what your circle time is like? I've written about my circle time experiences at www.teachingchallenges.blogspot.com

So, here's my answer:

I actually break up circle into two separate times. I have what I call a gathering time and then a circle time. We'll go into what I do at each group, but basically we typically have gathering time, breakfast, then circle. However, some classrooms don't acclimate to this schedule because it is too much time of "controlled" activity. When this is the case I have breakfast, gathering time, free choice activities (which includes skill builders*) and then circle time.

Okay, now on to what we do at each group. First, gathering time. This is really the time that we do the mundane tasks (or what I call mundane). I include roll call, weather, calendar patterning, the question of the day, and the flag salute. It changes a bit for different age groups as appropriate.

A general outline for a three year old gathering time:
Start with a roll calling song ("Where is ____" sung to Where is thumbkin is a great one because it's a call and response; I also like "_____is here today" for the beginning of the year when they aren't used to the routine yet).
Next we do the weather. I'll assign one person a week to be the "weatherperson" and they can bring in the newspaper report everyday if they like and they get to put up the weather, check out the window, etc...
We then sing the days of the week. This is immediately followed by what day is today? We ONLY discuss yesterday, today, and tomorrow at this age level; it's what's appropriate. We take yesterday out of the today slot and move it to yesterday. This gives them the hint as to what today is. Then we move that from the tomorrow and then figure out what tomorrow will be.
If I am doing this before breakfast, I then begin dismissing them for breakfast. If I am doing this before free choice, I let them know what is around the classroom to do (skill builders, new toys, etc...) and dismiss them and ask, "Where are you going to play?" Note: This does not tie them into that space, it only gives me an idea of what they are thinking and how far along they are in their thought process (If they say to the blocks and they get side tracked on the way there to the art table, they still are working off impulses).

For 4 year old classrooms, this is how group gathering runs:
Roll call song. Once a week at the beginning of the year and two to three times a week towards the end of the year, I do this strictly as a call the name, raise your hand and say "here". This is to get them in the practice for kindergarten.
Again, we do the weather and then sing the days of the week. Again, we do yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
However, we then follow this up with the calendar pattern. THIS IS A PATTERN BOARD. This is really the reason why we do the calendar; to make a pattern. Yes, we count the number of days, but every month we work on a different pattern. The first couple months we might do a simple two item pattern. But, as the year progresses we may make it more complex.
Then we sing the months of the year and then discuss today's date. This is as far as we go discussing the date. They really don't, developmentally, grasp the concept of the date, so the most important is the yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
We then look at the question of the day. I make this part of their coming in routine. The question is already up and as the parents bring them in they sign in, then take their parents to the question of the day and answer the question with them. At gathering time we look at the question that was asked and how the group as a whole answered. Which has the most, which has the least, etc...
At this point, if it's before free choice time, we discuss the choices available.
Then we stand and recite the pledge of allegiance. The children are dismissed after the pledge to whatever is next (breakfast or free choice); again asking where they will be going and possibly what they are planning on doing.


Since this post has been so long, I am going to cut off now and tomorrow I will continue with what circle time consists of.

*skill builders are those planned activities that build on a particular skill such as letter recognitions, patterning, fine motor work, language and literacy, etc...

Circle Time length

After doing a few observations in a teacher's classroom, focusing on circle time, I was able to pull her out and talk to her about how to improve her circle. The first thing I told her was that it was too long. She has a classroom full of 3 year old children...her circle time was 30 minutes!!!

The first thing I told her was that she needed to shorten circle time. She asked, "Well, how long should it be?" This is where I found out that this is her first class as a teacher and most of her experience is with kindergarten children and the one preschool teacher she had (who wasn't good at all) is who she was basing her circle off of. I told her that I was afraid that when the new 3 year olds came in next month (these children are moving to the 4's) that she would be in for a big surprise because they wouldn't do well. Actually, I am amazed at this class because it seems to me that these children would actually sit quietly for an hour if asked to do so.

Here's the general rule for the length of circle time:

5 minutes per age of child

That means 15 minutes for 3 year olds, 20 minutes for 4 year olds, 10 minutes for 2 year olds, you get the idea.

This isn't to say that after 5 minutes into circle the children are just not having it today that you continue the torture (of yourself more than the children) and just let them go. It also isn't to say that come to the 15 minute end, the children are still sitting eagerly wanting more, that you can't extend it a bit. But in general, 5 minutes per year of age.

What is your favorite circle time activity?