While I doubt Maria Montessori called it “Circle Time,” she did write about certain group lessons that the class would undertake together — things like playing the silence game, where the children would all close their eyes and be silent for a minute or so, then share what they had heard. In Montessori classrooms today, Circle Time is generally used as a way to set a clear starting or ending point to the work cycle. Because the rest of the work cycle is so individualized, it’s a time to build classroom community and perhaps present themed lessons to the whole group. In our Montessori homeschool preschool, I used Circle Time as a clear starting point to our work cycle and to introduce new material or themed lessons that I was about to put on the shelf.
For our Circle Time, there were some parts that were exactly the same every single day, some that had 1-3 choices that the girls got to pick, and some that changed based on the theme we were doing. There were some things that we did when the girls were toddlers, and new things that we did when they reached the preschool age. If you have children in both age groups, you may want to incorporate both types of things!
Some typical activities for a Montessori Toddler Circle Time:
- A good morning song — this can be any song you like, but it’s helpful to have some way of greeting each of the children by name and incorporating grace & courtesy skills like asking people how they are.
- A days of the week song — again, there are many out there to choose from. At the toddler level, this is all you need to do in terms of calendar work, and perhaps discuss what happens on the particular day of the week that that day is (ex. On Tuesdays we have Kindermusik class, grocery shopping, etc).
- Read a book — look for rhyming books or books that repeat while adding on one more thing. If you have some kind of themed work on your shelves (seasonal, holidays, transportation, etc), try to match your book to that topic.
- Do a fingerplay or feltboard activity along with a song — ones like 5 Little Ducks help build counting skills. While the other songs should be consistent each day, have several differing fingerplays/songs to cycle through for this activity.
- Demonstrate a new work tray — if you have just put out a new work tray that you know is going to get a lot of use right away, demonstrate it at Circle Time so you don’t have to do a bunch of individual lessons on it later.
- Something involving movement — this could be another song with motions, learning a new yoga move, or sending the children off to choose work while moving in the way that a particular animal moves (“waddle like a penguin,” “hop like a frog,” etc).
Once your child is a bit older (3.5-4+ish), you can adjust your Circle Time accordingly. Some typical activities for a Montessori Preschool/Primary Circle Time (ages 3-6):
- A good morning song — this can be exactly the same as the one you used at the toddler level! Children of all ages enjoy being greeted by name.
- Calendar — sing the same days of the week song, then find that day’s date on the calendar. I like to match the number of the date on the calendar with the Montessori bead bars to make it a bit more concrete.
- Read a book — this can be a longer storybook or non-fiction book, especially ones that are related to current shelfwork.
- Present a new lesson — if you have a current unit study out (more topical than seasonal — something like dinosaurs, continent studies, the human body, etc), present the most broad work tray as a group.
- Mindfulness or Movement activity — do Maria Montessori’s original silence game, practice breathing, or do some Yoga together.
After Circle Time is over, the children can be sent off to the work cycle.
To hear some of the songs I used with my girls, check out this post:
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