Routine / circle time

so what does your circle time included?How many circle time do you have a day?
The young children most of us work with it can not be long . 5 minutes to 15 most.
Our First circle time take place right after Breakfast We do calendar which moves us in to a story most time then right to table time . I have posted my calendar area before here, here is the post.
http://abcsofjesshouse.blogspot.com/2010/11/monday-number-3.html
it works great for me . We review our number of the month . We count the days of week , names of the month and sing the months . There are many ways to do this i would think .
Sunday , Monday , Tuesday ,Wednesday , Thursday , Friday Saturday then we start again . Then we stop on the day of the week Sunday , Monday . Months is done the same way . And count until the number .
Then we move into a quick craft or possible just some table activity . Most things i do are very flexible and open ended so they can do as little or as much as they want . It is way different for my 4year girls in my care she can spend hours at the table but my Two year old boy 5 or 10 minutes tops .
Then after free play we do another circle time . This is done on are circle time carpet . This will have usually two songs , two short books and possible a group interaction . I pick usually two songs almost always one with movement for the children to be involved and a counting one . Story's are short few words great pictures . I usually do a story ,song , story song to break it up . Then for interaction sometime it a flannel piece they get to hold , a prop for story or song . other times like this week we did a large floor puzzle at circle time .
here the post on where this circle time takes place
http://abcsofjesshouse.blogspot.com/2011/02/enviroment.html
There are many times for opportunity to read through out the day. For a few years i would pick a classic story and read a chapter each day before the children feel a sleep while they where in their beds . I sometime read at lunch while they are eating or at snack in late afternoon . Even right before they go home i will start another short circle time again 5 to 10 minute story .
I think some of the most important thing about circle time is routine children now where it is and when it is . Like my children know right after they clean up breakfast they are to sit back down and we do calendar right away . They know right after we clean up from free play they sit on a letter on carpet ready to listen .
Ilike routine why wound the children like routine .

Counting Dinosaur

Stegosaur Bony Back . I printed a picture of Stegosaur "Pearson education inc" and i glue it to card board (cereal boxes ). then i let children paint with Lego to give a bumpy effect and a made sponge .cotton wipes and clothes pin. When dry i cut out and we added 6 clothes pins .To make bony back . This is great to help with pincher skills , fine motor and counting . You can do numbers , letters or what every you like to reforce with the clothes pin , patterns ? endless

Thursday letter Pp

Prefect P for puzzles and color of the month purple . Of course many other other words .So we did our word list . Including the P dinosaurs. Pteranodon small as a turkey body but wings as big as a small plane. (there are many but we only be talking about this one this week along with our other dinosaur. )

We did our practice writing in purple. Then we took are P templates decorated them and put them on purple paper . Then we cut them into pieces and then we have a puzzle . P for puzzle .One girls would not cut her pretty work she said into puzzle pieces. that was ok . We also did a few dinosaur puzzles together a nice floor one and some more detail ones. Then i put them out for free play to explore . I have some nice 3D ones also we will work on later . Floor puzzle we will do at circle time . I have a nice collection dinosaurs puzzles .

Dinosaur cracked his egg! Circle time

Dinosaur cracked his egg!

Dinosaur egg.

up high on the wall

you rolled to far

and had a great fall

now all you Dino pals and these boys and girls

will have to try to put you back together again !

I have this written on the back of the brown egg and make three more eggs in green , brown and yellow so i can hand out the pcs and we can together put the puzzle together . I did cover the puzzle pc to use and make stronger year after year .

unknown where it came from i made it years ago .

I have a dozen dinosaur books but i picked these to up a few months back from the dollar section at target for .25 for the younger kids to play , read and use in the book area . we did read them but they are simply catch bony back ?

I though as am at it the finger play am using this week with the dinosaur theme .

The Dinosaurs
The dinosaurs lived long ago, when life on earth began.
(gesture palm up wave over your shoulder)
Some were tall (gesture high).
Some were small (gesture low).
Some liked water (gesture swimming).
Some liked land (gesture walking by alternating palms on your knees).
Pteranadons had leathery wings (gesture flying).
Brontausaurs, long necks (gesture to neck).
But the meanest dinosaur of all (gesture mean face).
Was Tyranosaurus Rex (gesture heavy stomping by alternating
palms on your knees).
By lisa G

Five Silly Dinosaurs
Five silly dinosaurs began to snore, (make snoring noises)
One woke up, and then there were four.
Four silly dinosaurs climbing a tree, (reach up with arms and move legs as if climbing)
One fell out, and then there were three. (fall down)
Three silly dinosaurs playing with glue, (move hands)
One got stuck, and then there were two. (act like feet are stuck to floor)
Two silly dinosaurs went out for a run, (run in place)
One fell down, and then there was one. (fall down)
One silly dinosaur acting like a hero,
Went out to save the others, and then there were zero. (sit down)
(Author Unknown)
preschoolsoup.com

i link this post up here
http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/

Dinosaurs how big are you ?

Well today we looked at how big or small a dinosaurs is ? We measure out the lenght of some dinosaurs we been taking about and ones we more interested in .

Stegosaurus "bony back " 30 feet long /16 feet height

Triceratops "Three horn" 30 feet long 16 feet height

Tyrannosaurus one of the biggest T-rex 40 feet long 20 high.

We took out our dinosaur growth chart to see how tall each child was then

we took string and laid it to 16 feet long . This is how tall a Bony back is and Three Horn we had the children lay next to the string and see how tall they are ? In the end we measure to Trex size adding 4 more feet . Now when i was in a classroom I used painters tape and laid that out on the floor. It makes a huge impact on the size. we also walk the length and counting how many steps it takes to be as tall as a TRex .and so on . I leave the string tapes to the floor for free play so they can walk it ,measure it and so on . lay next to it .

As we are talking about dinosaurs growth i have to say they are loving the science area with the dinosaur in the vase growing . They get very excited coming and checking . Look at these great book i also found to add over there for the two kind of dinosaurs we having growing . Bony back and three horns .. prefect addition . I also adding some dinosaur flash card for them to look at all the different dinosaurs.

When we where done i had these great set of dinosaur stamps we pulled out .

Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs come from eggs . so today was introduce to dinosaurs . "We read Dinosaur Days" then first we decorated large egg with dot dubbers . We added a dino to the egg .Their many ways you could do this yard art would of been fun . tissue paper college , sponge painting etc . We did not have a lot of time and after busy day yesterday i though a simply art would be good and they all love the dot dubbers . Then i had a dinosaur in a some white play dough hidden (eggs) for them to dig out break out . They have not seen this dinosaurs yet so they where a surprise to ad to block area . They loved this and played at least 1/2 hour it the play dough and dinos .They had fun pulling the play dough apart . Making dino tracks.

We have a watch and grow dinosaur we put in a van in the Science area to watch . He already started to grow (i picked up at dollar store .)They are very excited they have already told me he is growing .

We also added watch me grow dinosaurs to science area i just picked up two at the Dollar store .

Valentines lunch !

now there are endless ideas of lunch . red foods heart shape . In pass we have made home made heart shape pizza and for B-fast we have had pancakes , strawberry and whip cream. But today was simple cereal and strew berry for b-fast and lunch i got out my handy heart cutters and make heart shape ham sanwichs (ham is red right ) , strawberry and apples and some fun crazy heart straws with our milk .