Teach English in NanyanzhuZhen - Jinzhong Shi

At the beginning of my teaching career I didn't quite understand what circle time was. I remember starting a new job in a preschool where one of my colleagues asked me to get the kids ready for circle time so I got the kids attention and asked them to make a circle. Thankfully, my colleague did the rest as I was training so I just needed to observe and learn. That was when I understood what circle time was. Circle time uses repetition through songs, games and various learning activities. It could be used as a warm up activity for students at kindergarten and preschool or as a nice way to get their attention and get them to sit down in a circle ready to listen to the new activity. Circle time has a strong impact on kids understanding, knowledge, respect, fun and learning. According to the British Council, kids learn through experience, playing and drilling. Their brains assimilate words and knowledge by doing things and repeating them constantly. That is why circle time is a truly valuable activity that should be done with toddlers and preschool kids. Circle time teaches kids to respect rules. The children during their school year will learn the phrase “Circle Time” and they will associate it with that time where they play an activity. So at a certain time of the day, when the teacher calls circle time the children know what to expect. Circle time works well because it is a fun activity where kids get to sit or stand in a circle and sing and dance songs or do an activity altogether. Activities done with kids should always present a learning opportunity through a fun activity. In the following paragraphs I will introduce a few ideas for circle time activities. Singing is an engaging and pleasant activity that combines a few skills together. Through songs kids learn new vocabulary, the meaning of the vocabulary by dancing or doing the action described in the song and the correct pronunciation. There are plenty of songs to do during circle time and usually the teacher chooses a few songs to sing during the entire school year covering essential topics, such as songs about greetings, days of the week, weather, emotions, animals. Another nice activity to do while the kids are in circle is called fingerplay. During this activity the teacher can decide the topic, let’s say family, then draw faces on her fingers - daddy’s face, mummy’s face, brother’s face etc. and then play a song related to the topic and get the kids to repeat it with you while showing the characters on her fingers. There is also a useful activity which teaches kids to describe their emotions. The teacher draws faces with different emotions on a big piece of paper - happy, sad, angry, sleepy etc. The kids sing “Let’s go to happy face, happy face, happy face..” and one kid needs to move a paper cup on the big piece of paper and stops on the relevant emotion, when the other kids sing “Here I am!”. Another activity which is very popular as an icebreaker for new classes starts with the kids sitting down in a circle. The teacher, holding a soft toy such as a teddy bear or ball, says “Hello! My name is ..”. The teacher then passes the object to a student who copies what the teacher said, personalising it with their own information. The game continues like so and the aim is that students learn their classmate’s names and practise introducing themselves to each other. One last activity that I really like is called Sail Around the World. This geographical activity is good to teach kids the four cardinal points. The teacher marks North, South, West and East on the walls of the classroom and tells them to pretend they are sailing a boat. When the teacher says North they need to move towards the wall that has the North sign and then the kids come back to the middle of the classroom. When the teacher says sail around the world, the kids get to touch all four walls. Circle time is now my favourite and most successful way to get kids attention and to get them interested in a new activity.