At the beginning of every school year, I am often asked, “How much time should I plan to spend in circle time?”
My quick answer is always the same: Circle time should last as long as the children are interested in the process and not one minute more.
Before I continue, I should tell you that my students have asked me, “Mrs. Stewart – why do you call it circle time when our carpet is a rectangle?” Let me say that when I use the term “circle time,” I am referring to…
Anytime your students gather with you as a whole group.
To simplify things, when I say circle time, I am also referring to community time, large group time, rectangle time, or any other title you wish to call it.
All Kinds of Opinions
If you ask around, you will get a lot of differing opinions about circle time and what is considered developmentally appropriate for young children when it comes to how long children should sit or can sit. A popular answer is that circle time should be “one minute per age” and then there are those that have concluded that circle time isn’t developmentally appropriate for preschool age at all.
The Heart of Circle Time
I believe circle time offers a valuable opportunity to foster the whole group sense of community and I keep that at the heart of every circle time I share with my students. I also believe that circle time needs to be an interactive experience. In other words, the children are not passively sitting and listening to the teacher but rather are invited to take part in discussion, story-telling, passing objects around, singing together, and playing games.
When circle time invites the children to be active participants AND fosters a sense of the whole group community, then how long circle time should last will be guided by student interest and engagement rather than a set standard that can’t possibly work for every group of children. With this in mind, I come back around to my original answer to the question…
Circle time should last as long as the children are interested in the process and not one minute more.
What to Consider
- Rather than focusing on time, just focus on keeping your circle time interesting and let the time take care of itself.
- If your students lack interest then move on and come back next time with a new and improved plan.
- Remember, young children are active learners and that includes learning in circle time.
July 24, 2019 is coming soon!
I have moved to calling this time “rug time.” Students got on me about the very thing you described – 2 years ago the very name subject became the focus of our time and together we officially changed the title. One of those times that proved I have to be flexible about what can happen at rug time- it still covered many great educational things, and those students will still ask when visiting if I have kept the name!
We have circle time every morning to gather together to start our day and we also gather together for other areas such as a fun science experience, art experience and of course the much loved stories…..sometimes it’s fun to see the children moving in as close as they can without actually sitting on me…😂
Query! How do you move from Circle time to Center time? What do you say to the children? how do you facilitate that? And how many centers do you usually have going at one time? Can they go to any and all OR are some of the centers closed so that you can get them into the centers you WANT them to be in? This last time Better Beginnings was in my classroom, they did not like the way I did Centers. Can I explain to you what I did and have to critique? BECAUSE, what the technician said doesn’t make much sense to me and I would like another opinion. I am studying up on this and planning all the time, but I am not receiving any input that I find helpful in make transitions from center to center or from Circle time to centers. I would be SO grateful for your input. I cannot tell you how frustrated I am with this. Thanks in advance.
Roberta, I understand. I work with an assessment program also that gives very little feedback. Sometimes you have to take the hit and know you will have to shine in other areas. I always excuse circle time by, clothes color, name begins with, moms name is, last name is, way their hair is, etc. centers are all open and children go where they want. If I need a child to practice a skill, I will set something up at the table or carpet during this free time and call them over, others may join and that is fine. Relax and enjoy the ride.
Hi Roberta…I know that its frustrating not having a feedback on what you do…or at least if what you do is right or wrong. But just relax and believe in yourself, on what you know is best for you students. Your feedback will always be your students. Transitioning from circle time to centers can be tricky sometimes, but during circle time, you can explain the routine so the children know what to expect. I always sing a song saying the names of the child I want to go and chose a center, or you can pick a name out of a box (also good to work on first letter sound and so forth). The centers are always available to them, but I normally establish the amount of children in each centers by the number of chairs or a number on the table.
Just have fun with your students, after all, that´s what really matters.
Deborah
Your ‘circle time’ story is similar to mine. The rug in our group time (as I call it now!) area has shapes on it. One time I told the children it was circle time and I had a little girl say ‘do we just sit on the circles? I wanted to sit on the purple square.’!
I love this. I teach 3s turning four and love how you focus circle time as place to gather as a community.
Years ago I had to testify at a court hearing for a custody case. The father’s lawyer was peppering me with questions and not getting anywhere. Finally after I explained a “Day at Preschool” for him, he asked ” Well do the children really sit in a circle at Circle Time?” I looked at the judge, who was a woman in her 50’s, she looked at me and together we both started laughing.
It is encouraging to hear that you see the benefits of children gathering together to share, songs, rhymes, stories and other areas of group interest, it does indeed build community. If we as educators wish to preserve this special time then we must work hard to draw the children into developmentally appropriate materials that hold their interest and attention. As with many things it’s best to stop with the children wanting more and not going for extra long stories or singing one too many songs.
Let’s not ‘Throw out the baby with the bath water’ but work on making this special time special and not an ordeal!
I stopped calling it circle time. In my prek class we gather for morning meeting. I think they like the idea of a meeting. They can relate because most adults will have meetings so they feel important and I always ask them to share something that is important to them.
I love the idea that this time (whatever you call it) should last only as long as the children are engaged! I will say some of my gathering times have literally been no more than 5 minutes and some have lasted a full 1/2 hour because my students have been fully engaged and interested. The longer time has been toward the end of the school year. Keep them engaged and they will want to be there!
In the beginning of the school year, I kept circle time short, but as the year progressed, it could last thirty minutes with up and down activities. If we were reading about bunnies and I saw someone getting restless, I would stop and say, “Alright, little bunnies, let’s hop hop hop to the door and back.” Then I’d sing song: Hop little bunnies hop hop hop.” Teacher led circle times are difficult to sit through.