Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Circle Time

I bet you can't guess where we do circle time? We do circle time on the upstairs stairwell landing and in the stairwell. Sounds like a funny place, huh?! It works great for us. I was trying to get all of the posters in the house in one place and started putting them in the stairwell. Then I thought it would be a great place for our weather tree. Since the weather tree is part of circle time, we decided to move our calendar and routine chart to that location as well. 

So each morning after morning chores are complete, the kids gather on the top stair landing.

(Little Red Riding Hood is sick and couldn't muster up a smile this morning.)


The first thing we do each circle time is go over the routine for the day. I love the system I came up with last year. We can move the little velcro cards around according to what we will be doing on any given day. Next we go over our calendar skills and family rules. Our family rules are ~   
  1. Mind your own business
  2. Obey Mom and Dad
  3. Respect all living things
  4. Respect everyone's belongings

(Under our calendar is our people timeline.)

Next we record that day's predicted weather on the weather tree. We just started this New Year's Day and are really enjoying it so far.


Once we are done with the weather tree, we review one of our posters. We either review the world map, U.S. map, continent map, geography terms, solar system chart or the Pledge of Allegiance.

Lastly, we review one of our books. Right now we are doing a book on families around the world. It is interesting to see how others live. The kids then find that family's country and continent. Before this book, we reviewed safety cards and next we will be doing a book on body language.




It is amazing how much we can get done in about 20 minutes time. So do you do circle time? What does it look like in your house?

Blessings, Dawn


5 comments:

  1. I love our cozy stairwell, too! You've made great use of yours and inspired me to add more than the two maps I have hanging. :o)


    Cindy

    http://ourjourneywestward.com

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  2. We love our circle time. We don't have stairs, but this month I moved our circle time to our vestibule. I keep a calendar on the door that hides our furnace and we are currently learning landmarks, sight words, and Spanish vocabulary words.

    Hmmm...i have room for more posters over there and you are such an inspiration :) I need a map that will fit on a small door.


    Tracy @ seeingfingerprints.blogspot.com


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  3. Great ideas. We haven't done circle time in a few years. We did a lot of moving and I just never set everything up again. Maybe I'll try to get to that soon.

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  4. I couldn't gather everyone up for a time like that! That is nice; so organized & I LOVE all the posters & things on the wall as reminders!

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  5. We haven't done circle time, but this is a great idea! Looks like all would go smoothly once Mom got organized on the front end. (It always breaks down with Mom, doesn't it? lol )


    Love hearing about how you do things friend!


    Blessings

    Leslie

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