Moving during Circletime

​So I read something totally crazy the other day…..apparently, there are Preschool Teachers in the world who have 45 min circle time. How in the world does one have the ability to make a room of little people sit for 45 minutes? Also what are they doing during all of that time??!
My schedule says that my Circle time is 30 min long but really it rarely lasts 15 min. 30 min is for the days there are extra questions or if I read a story before we go into centers. Mother Goose Time has a set Circle Time script in the lesson plans. It is set up like this: 

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​Morning Greeting
Weather
Discussion
Schedule
Fingerplay/Song 
Now this doesn’t take that long. But it is a lot of sitting for the little people. Which is why I start circle time by looking like an idiot. *Proof shown below* We dance to a song before circle time. My favorite is the Chicken Song by the Laurie Berkner band. We use egg shakers and dance by following the fast and slow movements of the song. The Days of the week song is a Finger play song and the Months of the year is a movement.

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My reasons for this came about after my first few months as a preschool teacher. Circle time is a valuable tool but the children were bored. I was bored. I was very bored. I was thinking about scrapping it altogether. Then one morning we couldn’t go outside because of the weather and I decided that we should get some energy out prior. And that is when my Music and Movement circle time was born!!!
I WASN’T BORED ANYMORE!! It also helps to structure circle time for the children a little better and they were retaining the information given out better. Which brings me to the reason it is a good idea to have music and movement during circle time. Aside from the epic reason of being bored, they love it and they are better engaged in the learning process because we are having fun. The songs give them something to help remember the new information. You want learning to be fun for the children. It is not supposed to be about sitting in circle staying still and not talking the entire time. You want the children to have fun learning and to encourage them to explore learning on their own.
Circle time is the way that you can start that.
Until next time!
 
Ms. Tessie