5 Tips for Managing Circle Time

Circle time or morning meeting is the time at the beginning of each day when children gather and greet one another.  It connects community-building in your program to a familiar and predictable routine. While circle time is an important part of the classroom flow, planning each day’s circle time conversation can also be a source of concern for educators.  

In this article, we share tips to help ensure that circle time is a productive and enjoyable part of the daily curriculum – for both educators and children.

1. Choose a developmentally appropriate activity. For toddlers and young preschoolers, starting small is key. A simple song or a short story might be just the right length for a toddler’s attention span, while older learners will be able to sit and engage for extended periods of time. For children in preschool and pre-k, try to slowly integrate more discussion. Some classes like to discuss everyday topics that they have in common, such as the weather or daily routines. There is no specific amount of time that is right or wrong for a particular group of children. It is more about finding what works for both the children and the educators. 
2. Be flexible. As with all things related to ECE, teachers and caregivers must remain flexible. Some days you might find that the children are just not engaged with a particular book or discussion topic.  Although it can feel disappointing, especially when a lot of planning went into a particular lesson, part of being a responsive educator is to recognize when it makes sense to be flexible and switch to another activity. According to an article from Teacher.org, “Exemplary teachers have a growth mindset and are continually adding to their tools and strategies. They use these tools to support effective differentiation that is responsive and flexible to student needs. The ability for a teacher to adjust the content, process, and product due to…observation is a true art form.” 
3. Shift your perspective. When children become excited during morning meeting, they might have a hard time waiting for their turn to talk. Deborah Stewart, a preschool teacher of 30 years and author of the blog, Teach Preschool, looked at some of the challenges of managing morning meetings and presented an important question: “When a preschooler speaks out during circle time, is that an interruption or an interaction?”  Despite the fact that it feels disruptive when a child blurts out a thought or story in the middle of a discussion, Stewart decided to shift her perspective from a “do not interrupt” mindset to one that encouraged enthusiastic interaction.  She noticed that getting students involved in the lesson this way helped them to be less distracted and more engaged with the rest of the group. 
4. Incorporate children’s interests. Karen Stephens of The Child Care Information Exchange suggests observing children during free play to understand what their interests are. “Note children’s abilities and interests during spontaneous, self-initiated, peer interactions…Plan experiences that are responsive to children’s general ages as well as unique developmental abilities. Circle activities should be an outgrowth of individual or group interests.”
5. Know when to cut it short. Children can begin to feel antsy and ready to move around before circle time or morning meeting is over;  trying to introduce some music and movement, yoga, or games to get children moving can help with this. However, some days, if children are eager to get outside and run around in the fresh air, it is okay to cut your circle time short. Just as adults need a break, sometimes children do, too. Rather than battling it out to make it through circle time, you’ll all feel more relieved if you just let it go and try again the next day.​