I enjoy the socialization that happens by the end of the school year when during circle time, Kindergarteners-Almost-First-Graders, who were at once apprehensive to sing or shake hands with the strange child seated next to them are now sorry to sing their last circle time songs and shake hands with their Kindergarten friends hands for the last time. This is just one of the reasons that I love circle time and also the reason that I think it is still important for Kindergarteners to sing and participate in song.
When I was a new teacher, I was more controlling over the management of circle time
, I chose who did what and when. As I matured in my understanding of building independence and responsibility I began to have a more of a directive role and chose a circle time helper for the week to manage the activities. I model circle time for at least a month before the helper job begins. It is the circle time helper's job to manage circle time in the same order that I do. I oversee circle time, make corrections and inquiries, add a learning point, or introduce a new concept. It is amazing to see how the students respond to responsibility. They really take it seriously, and I never once had to sit the helper down for misbehavior. I use circle time (morning routine) to teach all content areas of the curriculum in which I will use the rest of this article to summarize. In the beginning of the year this is a time consuming task, but later in the year becomes faster and even more activities are added.
I start every morning with this song:
Hello, how are you? (Repeat twice)
How are you today?
I'm fine, I hope you are too. (Repeat twice)
I hope you are fine today.
Turn to your neighbor and shake their hand. (Repeat twice)
Shake their hand today.
Starting circle time activities with our "morning song" or "hello song", is a great routine to start the day. I use the written words of the song on a chart as a shared reading text. You can learn more about starting the year off with shared reading here. I model the use of a "pointer stick" to track print from left to right, return sweep, find punctuation marks and spacing. Later in the year, as students become more proficient in reading skills, we find and circle sight words in the song and count the number of times we can find the word hello, I, are, you, today, etc. We also learn that questions precede an answer from this song. One year I even had a class inquire what "I'm" meant and we started a whole beginner unit on contractions (first grade curriculum).
Next we sing the months of the year song. There are many versions of the song. I use the tune of Ten Little Indians:
January, February
March and April
May and June
July and August
Then comes the month of September
October, November and don't forget December.
Each month is listed on a store bought poster. We learn the order of the months, that there are twelve months in the year, what month was last and what month is next, how many days are generally in a month and when we get to 30 or 31, that the month is over, the season the month is in, that months always begin with a capital letter, that many months end in the letter "y", that there are two months that start with the letter "J" and two that start with the letter "M". Writing the month becomes easier with time, especially when we know where to find it in the classroom.
Next we learn the days of the week. Again, we sing a song from a store bought poster, follow the helper track print with the pointer stick and hold up our fingers as we count the number of days in a week:
There are seven days, there are seven days,
There are seven days in the week.
There are seven days, there are seven days,
There are seven days in the week.
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday, Saturday
We learn that there are seven days in a week and that they too have an order. Again we practice spelling, capitalization, and what today, tomorrow and yesterday means. I teach them an example of what we did yesterday, what we will do today and what we will do tomorrow. After awhile of practicing, students will give you examples based on specials, or events. Learning the word, "day" becomes very easy and students are on their way to finding word chunks.
Next we put it all together on a monthly calendar, in which we count down to special days, what day of the week the fourteenth of the month was, how many Saturdays (for example) are in this month. We learn the difference between numbers 7 and 17. We learn odd and even numbers. My students write the date everyday and learn to date their papers at Writing Workshop.
Next we count to 100 by ones, tens and fives. Later in the year we learn to count by two's and count above 100. We also learn how to make tally marks to 100. I start with a poster-board that reads "Tally to 100" and model using tally marks. This also reinforces learning to count by fives. This section can also be moved to your math time activities.
Next we keep track of the weather for each day of the school week on a graph and at the end of the month due summaries and comparisons. We also learn that we can "typical' weather in certain seasons. We keep track of the temperature on a thermometer and learn that higher numbers mean warmer weather and so on. Children also may practice this concept in Science Notebooks. I photocopy blank thermometers and instruct students to color with red crayon to the specified degree.
Last we keep track of who is here or absent on a "T-Chart". The chart has two columns with titles "Here" and "Not Here". I write the names of each student in the class on clothespins and clip them to the here side. The helper records who is absent in the class by moving the absent student's clothespin to the "Not Here" column. Then we count all that are here and not here and record the data on a post-it. This leads to adding up and down on a number line and addition and subtraction later on in the school year. This is an extension of an activity from the Scotts Foresman Investigations Math curriculum.