Today I am sharing our home preschool morning circle time routine.   I wanted to make a Preschool Morning Circle Time printable, based on our routine, available for you to print and adapt to your own needs!!

Last week, I shared what is included in Our Preschool Notebook.  Our days include preschool morning circle time, child-led learning, nature exploration, lots of reading, sensory time, math and literacy invitations, and much more!  We shared our initial preschool plans, and have started sharing our letter of the week posts, which may switch to simple homeschool update posts, but I have received some messages about our morning recitation, or “circle,” time.

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What is Circle Time?

A time for every student to feel welcome in the room and begin their day!

In my kindergarten classroom, every morning, we gathered at our desks for quiet themed reading and accountability — this was after each student checked in at our attendance chart and took care of snack and lunch choices.  Then I would quietly put our “Hello!” song on and the children would sing “Hello!” to one another in a circle on the carpet.  This encouraged all of the students to greet one another.  (Our “Hello!” song is from a wonderful album by a twin brother duo called Gemini.)

Our circle time, then, consisted of looking at the calendar, changing our date, and counting with various tactile tools up to 100.  We would then do counting from 1 to 100 and some skip counting and I’d move on to the literacy lesson of the day.  Towards the end of my last school year (before having John), I began implementing Classical education recitation into the classroom.  The students and I focused on beautiful poetry: we memorized and then copied poems by hand and drew a picture to illustrate.  The students loved this work. Children love to be challenged and inspired.

I think, now that I have been more inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach, I would encourage more child led reading, conversing, story telling, and sharing.  But now, at home, we follow my child’s needs in our child-directed learning time.

At home, this looks a bit different.

My son is not kindergarten age, but we are implementing some of the routines I used in Kindergarten.  We gather around and sing some fun songs from Our Preschool Notebook.  Then we sit down and begin our recitation time.  We move through our chart (here is a similar one) and learn; we practice reciting, counting, and memorizing.  (We aren’t doing a calendar or 100s counting for at least another year.  No need to rush this time, the focus is on having fun!)

We follow this sequence for morning time:

• What is the letter of the week?
• Can you feel the letter? (We feel each sandpaper letter — putting our finger on the big A as you’d write it and the little a as you’d write it.)
• What vehicle begins with the letter Aa?  (We are using the Zoomin’ Movin’ Alphabet curriculum from Royal Baloo.)
• What else begins with the letter Aa? (We are also using the Letter of the Week curriculum from Confessions of a Homeschooler.)
• Let’s read our Bible verse together! (Using my A to Z Bible Verses.)
• Let’s read our Prayer together! (Using my Prayer Cards for Children.)
• What is the color of the week?
• Can you put ____ objects into the basket? (We try a color hunt or putting objects of that color into a basket.)
• What is the number of the week?
• Can you put (1, 2, 3 etc.) Legos in the basket? (John runs to get 2 Legos, and places them in a little basket, with the number two inside.)
• Can you put the clothespin on the little letter? (Using the Clothespin alphabet match cards.)
• Let’s read our little book together!
• Let’s count from 1 to 30!
• Let’s count by 10s!
• Let’s count by 5s!
• What month is it? (We may sing the “Month Song” and the “Days of the Week Song” too.)
• What is our poem of the month? (We recite a poem from my 24 Monthly Preschool Chants.)
• What is our poem of the week? (We recite a poem from my 12 Poems of Robert Louis Stevenson.)
• Let’s sing the Alphabet Song!

Resources used above:

• Gemini cd
• Our Preschool Notebook
• Montessori sandpaper alphabet cards
• Zoomin’ Movin’ Alphabet curriculum
• Letter of the Week curriculum
• A to Z Bible Verses
• Prayer Cards for Children
• Poetry Cards for Children
• Clothespin alphabet match cards
• 24 Monthly Preschool Chants
• 12 Poems of Robert Louis Stevenson
• 10 Patriotic Songs

Print it!

I am attaching a FREE editable download of these morning questions, so you can adapt them to your Preschool needs!

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You can download the Preschool Morning Time free printable here.

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