Circle time activities for ages 3 to 5

Sit in a circle. One child claps once and turns to the next, who passes the clap on. Count how fast it goes all the way round.

Everyone closes their eyes for ten seconds and listens. Then go round the circle: each child names one sound they heard.

The teacher names a kind of weather and everyone moves like it: rain with fingertips, wind with arms, sun with a slow stretch, snow with soft steps.

Clap the syllables of each name round the circle: A-nan-ya is three claps. Everyone echoes the claps back.

Count the chairs in the circle together. Take one away and count again. Add two and count again. Say what changed.

Each child holds a thin strip of paper at arm's length and blows gently so it moves but does not fly away. Slow breaths, three times.

One child smiles at the next, who smiles at the next, all the way round the circle without a word.

Everyone closes their eyes while one child hides behind the teacher's chair. Open your eyes and say who is missing.

The teacher sings a short line and the children sing it back, loud, then soft, then in a whisper.

Name a colour. Each child points to or fetches one thing of that colour from near the circle and says its name.

When the teacher says “big”, everyone stretches tall and wide. On “small”, everyone curls up like a seed.

Draw a circle, a square and a triangle in the air with a finger, then with an elbow, then with a foot.