How to Teach Series Part #2

This week I'm going to cover Calendar and Circle Time.

Our first part of Circle Time starts off with our Good Morning Song.

Good Morning Song

Good Morning (Child's first and Last name) how are you?
(The child replies I'm Fine)Repeat 2 times

How are you this special day
We're so glad you came to play
Good morning( child's name) how are you?
I'm fine(child replies)

Repeat for every child

 Calendar

Then we move on to our Calendar. We take turns weekly on who does the date on the Calendar.

Then once the number is up we count starting at 1. 

Days of the Week

We start our Days of the Week topic with saying what day it is. We normally get a little loud to make it fun and I find they remember it and repeat it during the day.

We also sing the Days of the Week Song

(Sing to the tune of the Addams' Family)

Days of the week (snap, snap)
Days of the week (snap, snap)
Days of the week, days of the week, days of the week (snap, snap)

There's Sunday, and there's Monday, there's Tuesday and, there's Wednesday, there's Thursday and there's Friday and even 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 (snap, snap)

Month of the Year

 We start  this part of Circle time with saying the Month we are in. Then we find it on our Calendar.

Follow it with this song below.

(Sing to the tune of 10 little Indians)

January, February, March and April,
May, June, July, August and September,
October, November and December
These are the months of the year

Weather and Season

This is another part of our Circle time where we have a job. Whoever is the person to do the weather goes to the classroom window and takes a peek outside to decide what he thinks the weather is. Then he comes back and sits down and shares with us which picture is our weather. And then he places it on the chart shown below.

Since our season doesn't change everyday we just repeat the season we are in and some of the characteristics of that season.

Shape, Animal, Letter, Color, Trait and State of the Day

Each day we change out our shape, animal, letter, color, trait and state of the day.  As you can see below we place them in their spots on the chart.

We take turns drawing from these cups shown below which I've found to be very easy for storing the pieces.

Letter of the Week

I normally have a Letter for each Week that is part of our theme. So I try to pull random objects that go with that Letter. The picture below our Letter was P. I fill our tray and we explore and name the objects.

Bible Verse of the Week

Each week we have a Bible Verse that goes with out Letter of the Week. We say our Bible Verse daily.

Read a Book

At the end of Circle Time we read a story that goes with our theme. Whether it go with our letter, color or our Unit Study. I make sure it fits in with a part of our theme for the week. We also discuss the book after we read it just so I know they were paying attention.

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We always try to have fun. Some days I throw the musical instruments in the mix, or we stand up and jump when we answer a question. I have found movement is key in getting them ready for learning and it also gets the wiggles out of them! 

For the Printable resources I used in our Circle Time you can find them at 1+1+1=1. I also bought our Calendar at Mardels.

I'll be back next week on Tuesday with another part of the How to Teach Series that will focus on Fine and Gross Motor Skills.