🌈 Starting your Lessons with Circle Time

I like to start my English lessons with a familiar routine: Circle Time. It is a small moment, but it helps children settle down, switch into “English mode” and get ready for the lesson ahead. Repeated routines also give children plenty of opportunities to hear and use the same language in a natural way.

We usually begin with the day of the week. 📅

We sing our Days of the Week Song and, most importantly, we do the movements that go with it. 🎶🕺
I find this particularly important with younger learners. When children hear a word, say it, sing it and move at the same time, they create a stronger connection between the sound and its meaning.

Then we check the month. 🗓️
We sing our Months of the Year Song song and ask: “What month is it?”

Next comes the weather. ☀️🌧️🌈
We look outside, choose a weather flashcard and sing our Weather Song. Children can take turns saying:

“It’s sunny!”
“It’s cloudy!”
“It’s raining!”

Finally, we talk about our feelings.  Of course we have a feeling song, too! We use it with flashcards and encouraging children to use facial expressions to show how they feel. Children can choose a feeling card and say:

“I’m happy.”
“I’m tired.”
“I’m excited.”

For younger children, pointing to the correct face is already a great way to participate, while older children can ask a partner: “How are you today?”

I love these routines because they are predictable without being boring. Children know what comes next, but there is always room for singing, movement, creativity and conversation.

Circle Time is also a great opportunity to practice some of the simple English classroom phrases that children hear and use every day. If you need more ideas, have a look at Simple English Classroom Phrases for Young Learners Part 1 and Part 2.

And before we know it, English has already started! 💛

Here are a few things you might find useful for your classroom: 🛒

📅 A colorful classroom calendar to hang on the wall and use every day with your students! 

🌦️A Weather Chart

😊 Feelings / Emotions Posters

🗓️ Months of the Year Posters

🍂 Seasons Posters

🧸 Puppets

🎭 Emotion Flashcards

Once our Circle Time is over, I like moving on to a short, focused activity. For children working on early phonics, you might also enjoy Read, Find, Colour & Count, a playful way to practice sounds, reading and vocabulary.

THE MOON IS COLD by Enrich Lluch

Let's keep talking about garments! Winter is almost finished but a nice scarf and a woollen cap are necessary, for example during sudden snow storms like the one that's on Madrid right now…

Actually would it be possible that our moon, over there, were cold?

The Moon Is Cold sweetly answers the question.  Sarah is probably 5 and she likes the Moon very much. So much, to worry about her when a sudden storm starts pouring rain all over the town.

The Moon's expression is not particularly happy under the rain, so the little girl decides to help her new friend and runs towards her wardrobe to look for a raincoat to lend to the satellite in order to avoid its putting out.

Cute book with cute pictures that your youngsters will absolutely love. Especially because it gives a soul to an inanimate thing… a sort of diversion children usually enjoy quite a lot. Actually, yesterday, I had the opportunity to listen to a 3 year-old boy asking ' why didn't the statue speak?'.

Inside the book there are several weather and clothes' items to teach and, at the end of the story, you might ask your listeners to try to draw the moon wearing a raincoat (!!!).

As in At The Fair, you will also find a little cartoon on the top left corner that shows the moon peacefully turning around herself. 

So… Enjoy it!