I try to keep my circle time with some basic structure.. we start by singing the “Hickety Tickety Bumble Bee” name song. After that we do a small calendar portion and if the moons are aligned and I have all my fingers and toes crossed, I get the opportunity to have some great discussions with the group.

During our last circle time I had the children sing the name song while adding the colour of their eyes. At the very end of the song Teacher Pam got to say her name and my eye colour. As I opened my eyes widely and showed all the children how my eyes were the colour brown, a few noticed that i had a black spot in the middle of my eye. This lead us to have a discussion on how everyone has this “black spot”. This then lead us to using the large dress up mirror and having a look at our eyes..

Now this is learning at its most powerful moment. When children lead the teacher in their learning. I could have said no to children and said that we only have a certain time frame for circle. But look at them…. six boys and two girls and everyone is under the age of five… each one of them interested in the topic that we are on!!!!

I saw a great teaching moment.

Now for the next preschool class I will borrow books on the human eye and take my tablet to school to show the children more pictures and maybe they may want to know the certain words to these new and wondrous parts… I’m super excited!!!!

PS. We did happen to finish circle and what usually lasts ten minutes ended up going for 20 mins.  This did put us off schedule and we did end up missing five minutes of gym…. But well worth it, I think.