Preschool Circle Time Activities for Spring and Summer

The spring and summer months are a perfect time to take "circle time" outdoors. This change of setting can lend itself to a variety of fun activities. Choose a comfortable place to set out carpet mats or spread down an old sheet to sit on. Consider keeping circle time fairly short each day, as children's attention span is brief, or you can spread out two circle times during the day.

Here are a few preschool circle time activities, which are somewhat traditional, to add to your everyday songs, stories, and games.

Show and Tell Riddle Game

Give each child a small lunch bag. While outdoors, have them search to find a special object (a small toy or nature find) that they would like to share with the group and put this into the bag. Now, go around the circle, one child at a time, letting each child give clues about the item in their bag to the other children. See who can guess the contents of the bag?

Hot and Cold Game

Have one child leave the circle for a moment. Decide with the other children, an object to be "it" in the game. Invite the child that was absent to return and walk around the area. Everyone in the circle will shout out "hot" when the child gets close to the object and "cold" when this child is far from it. It's a fun traditional game that is becoming generational.

Imaginary Trip

Play the trip game by imitation. Choose a destination and begin by pretending to do things needed for the vacation. Have the children imitate the leader as this person pretends to pack his/her suitcase, gets on the train, plane, or automobile, acts like a tourist visiting sights, and so on. Serve a special snack and discuss how much fun you are having on vacation.

Musical Squares

Place carpet squares around the circle or even sheets of colorful construction paper. Play some music via compact disk or cassette player and have the children walk around the circle. When the music stops, let the children scurry to find a square. Remove a square each time and continue playing until all the children are piled together on just a few squares. Everyone wins!

Shadow Dancing

On a sunny day, go outside and experiment with shadow dancing. See how big or long you can make your shadow. Play with it by adding motions like running, hopping, shaking, and dancing around.

These generational activities will never get old or outdated, because fun in movement and pretending is basic play for preschool-aged children. Preschoolers will develop gross motor skills, thinking and problem solving skills as well as social development while participating. Engaging the children in these preschool circle time activities outdoors in the warm sunlight will be a nice diversion from the everyday classroom - and the kids will get a healthy dose of vitamin D as well.

Source:
Personal Experience in an Early Childhood Classroom