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Morning Circle Time

  • 1.  Morning Circle Time

    Posted 09-16-2018 11:35 AM
    Hello fellow teachers,
    i am a professor for early childhood special ed and am trying to help my students find ways to stay away from developmentally inappropriate "calendar time." Looking for unique ways to hold a morning meeting using age appropriate ideas to discuss days, yesterday, Today and tomorrow, as well as fun things to do at morning gathering. Special ed classes, in particular, seem stuck in an old inappropriate model for pre school classes. Thank you.

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    Lydia Sussman
    Adjunct Professor
    Cal Lutheran University
    Studio City CA
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  • 2.  RE: Morning Circle Time

    Posted 09-17-2018 12:44 AM
    Our school believes in doing a meaningful calendar. We string beads on pipe cleaners to count the days we are at school. We count in groups of 10. We clap the 1s and stomp the 10s (for 32 we would count 10 (stomp), 20 (stomp), 30 (stomp) 31 (clap), 32 (clap). We make a chain with the pipe cleaners. We also introduce the concept of patterns. The kids string a bead as they walk in and we discuss the days later in circle. We do not do a traditional calendar.

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    Kelly Jellin
    Valley Parent Preschool
    Danville CA
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  • 3.  RE: Morning Circle Time

    Posted 09-20-2018 07:54 AM
    This is good professor and I will be following this thread.  I always thought it was time to change it up.  I like the counting the pipes on the line that is very interesting.

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    Malana Kendrick
    Kaleidoscope Play & Learn Preschool
    Wyoming MI
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  • 4.  RE: Morning Circle Time

    Posted 09-17-2018 05:42 AM
    They can sing songs and fingerplays; rhyme of the week; the teacher can write a daily message, describing what they will be doing that day, that he/ she reads to the class; they can review the day's picture schedule, talk about what each child wants to do (thumbs up/ down) make a chart of the results. I like to use a calendar to talk about special events like holidays, birthdays, and field trips, counting down the days until the events.

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    Sandra Ryan
    Bay Village OH
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  • 5.  RE: Morning Circle Time

    Posted 09-17-2018 06:34 AM
    I currently teach 3 and 4 year olds.  After our welcome and hello song our Reporter reads the morning message.  An ex.  Hi Friends,
    Today is Monday! Mm starts with Micaela and Mateo. Ms. Soto is looking forward to moving with you in gym today! 
    Love,
    Ms.    ... and Ms. ...
    This gives us a brief chance to highlight days of the week through a song. To incorporate yesterday and tomorrow I may ask a question about what they did over the weekend or are planning to do this coming weekend on Friday.  

    After. we stand up and sing How many friends are here today? We do various movements as we count - count and clap, count and jump, count and stomp etc.  Later in the year we will use a counting jar to focus on various math skills.  


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    Carla Shane
    Teacher
    Learning Through Play
    Bronx, NY
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  • 6.  RE: Morning Circle Time

    Posted 09-17-2018 08:59 AM
    One brilliant Head Start teacher and her class used a large desk calendar with approximately 2 inch squares for each day. Following the HighScope principle of "Plan / Do / Review" they took a few moments at the end of each day to review what happened that day, and then drew an emblem or wrote a word or two to represent a summary of their day. Morning circle included a review of what happened yesterday, or previous days. At the end of the month, the calendar page was flipped over the top, not torn away and discarded. Children often used the calendar in their center time, looking back at significant activities written about days before, or anticipating things to come, as special events were also recorded ahead of time.
    Calendar is about time and the meaningful events in our daily lives, not about numbers. There are other wonderful real life activities in our daily classroom lives that provide meaningful, authentic reasons to count, and to bundle in tens, joyfully shout at "100!" But calendar is about time, weeks and months, seasons and holidays and birthdays, and ordinary events in our everyday lives.

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    Josh Thompson
    Cedar Hill TX
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  • 7.  RE: Morning Circle Time

    Posted 09-17-2018 10:13 AM
    I would suggest looking up the wonderful article that Lilian Katz wrote about using calendars in the preschool classroom. She felt it was inappropriate as they are normally used.

    One could think about morning meeting as a place for sharing, discussing issues related to the classroom as well as issues from outside school, and getting ready for the day a la Highscope where the children share what they are planning initially to do. Highscope's Plan, Do, Review is a really good way to go. How you plan Morning Meeting has a lot to do with who is in the group you are teaching. There are wonderful group social skills to be learned when working and sharing in the group - taking turns, listening to each other, asking questions, as well as others.

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    Nora Krieger
    Associate Professor Emerita/ Chair NJEEPRE
    Bloomfield College/ New Jersey Educators Exploring the Practices of Reggio Emilia
    Highland Park NJ
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  • 8.  RE: Morning Circle Time

    Posted 09-19-2018 02:54 PM
    Yes, this is exactly the article I use. I think it is a perfect explanation about what is age appropriate for our little ones. The hard part is follow through when teachers get into a classroom. I am going to make a list of all the ideas I am gathering here. 
    Thank you!

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    Lydia Sussman
    Adjunct Professor
    Cal Lutheran University
    Studio City CA
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  • 9.  RE: Morning Circle Time

    Posted 09-20-2018 01:05 PM
    I loved the article you mentioned.  I am a director in Norristown, PA. I have four Pre-Kindergarten classes that all use calendars and I am going to have them all read this article and ask them to rethink their circle time.

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    Holly Kerins
    Calvary Baptist Children's Learning Center
    Norristown PA
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  • 10.  RE: Morning Circle Time

    Posted 09-17-2018 09:26 AM
    Here are a couple of articles I have found helpful on this topic:

    https://www.naeyc.org/sites/default/files/globally-shared/downloads/PDFs/resources/pubs/calendartime.pdf

    https://www.prekinders.com/calendar-in-pre-k/

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    Sherrie Rose Mayle
    Director/Teacher
    Campbell Parents' Participation Preschool
    Campbell, CA
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  • 11.  RE: Morning Circle Time

    Posted 09-22-2018 02:42 PM
    Hello!

    I teach a class of four year olds and have done much thinking about the use of time at the beginning of the day. I like calling our first gathering of the day our "morning meeting" rather than "calendar time." We use our calendar as a place to write special events coming up or record something special that happened that day. The children are not interested in reading the color pattern, the dates as each day is crossed off, or saying the day and month. What excites them about calendars are the pictures that show when special events will be or the picture that shows that Thursday is cooking day (or other weekly events). Our wall calendar is a large paper version like the one many people have hanging on their fridge - numbers already written in and we don't get rid of a month when it passes. I like using this measurement tool in an authentic way, namely for recording events. The children love flipping through the pages to find where their birthday is. When children ask if the field trip (or whatever event) is today, I remind them to check the calendar. Most of the children are able to use the calendar in this manner. 

    Perhaps you could have your college students reflect on the elements of meetings they enjoy attending. (I think we sometimes forget that children are people!) I like meetings that move the group toward solving a problem, make a plan, or invite someone to share a story, meetings in which the group members are actively engaged for a purpose. I would not care to attend a meeting in which we had to do the same thing every day. Reviewing the same concepts every day may help develop some rote skills, but is that what is most important in developing our students' young minds? What about the children who already know the basic skills? I wonder how they feel about having to sit through the same activities every day. It seems to me that developing communication skills (listening to others in a group, verbal expression, making connections, etc.) are more valuable. 

    Good luck in helping the newest members of our early childhood profession develop in their understanding of the needs of young children!

    Julie


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    Julie

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  • 12.  RE: Morning Circle Time

    Posted 09-25-2018 09:36 AM
    I have heard people talk about maximum seated time for each age group (based on brain development/executive function studies etc.) but cannot seem to find the citation. Has anyone seen an actual research based article about this?

    In my search, I have found advice from the field on maximum seated time but they ranged from 1 minute per year of age (so 3 minutes for 3 year olds etc.) to 5 minutes per age (which would be 15 minutes for 3 year olds). While I don't think it is an exact science, I was looking for guidance to discourage attempts to make children sit for long periods in the mistaken belief that this represents "kindergarten readiness" (for example, a coach in our program was proudly told by a director, "Our three year olds sit for 30 minutes at circle time every day!")

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    Beth Menninga
    St. Paul, MN
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  • 13.  RE: Morning Circle Time

    Posted 09-26-2018 09:09 AM
    Beth, I appreciate that you're looking for research to dispel the notion that the little ones must learn to sit for endless minutes in order to be ready for kindergarten. i just find the whole topic so frustrating!

    Personally, if I were forced to sit "crisscross-applesauce," hands in my lap and back straight, for more than a single minute I would lose my mind. And I would like to think I have more self-control than most 4-year-olds.

    We now have so much research showing that sitting does NOT equal learning. Further, there is research on fidgeting demonstrating that many children MUST move in order to concentrate. When we demand that they sit still, they're using all of their energy to focus on that demand.

    Yes, they will have to sit still at desks when they get to kindergarten and beyond (although that's due more to "how it's always been done" than to research and common sense). But they'll also have to learn to drive when they're teenagers. Does that mean we should put them behind the wheel now, in preparation for that?

    My wish is that everyone would appreciate the developmental stage their children are in. Imagine how much more focused and engaged toddlers and preschoolers would be if we let them listen to a story while sitting any way that's comfortable to them, or while lying or standing!

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    Rae Pica
    Rae Pica Keynotes & Consulting
    Alexandria VA
    www.raepica.com
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