Circle Time - July

Hello!   In our homeschool, we try to start our day with our version of Circle Time.   We basically have a Circle Time wall which is in the foyer of our house.  It's literally next to our front door.  We do our Circle Time when we exist the house.  Sometimes I remember at other times, but I placed it near the front door on purpose.  I figured if I was walking by it every day to leave the house that I would remember to actually go over it :)  

Included in our Circle Time are the following:
- Picture of the current season
- Picture of the current month
- Our day of the week chart including "yesterday", "today", and "tomorrow"
- a magnetic calendar
- a "welcome" sign with a changable wooden item
- a liturgical calendar wheel (not pictured)

The current season and current month pictures came from the Horizons Preschool curriculum.  We tried this curriculum for a while but it didn't work for us.  It was a lot of work and just not our style.   I did like some of the supplemental materials, like these sets of pictures, so I kept them.   The rest of the curriculum I donated.

I made the day of the week chart.  I got the idea from visiting Lakeshore Learning and checking out their Circle Time wall hangings that were for sale.  I quickly figured out that I did not want to buy one of the already made charts.  They were expensive and I already had a lot of the components.   One component that I saw on the pre-made wall hangings that I liked was the concept of a Day of the Week that included the terms "yesterday", "today", and "tomorrow."  Little One uses these concepts frequently but not necessarily correctly.  So I thought that this part of Circle Time would be helpful for him.  I made my Day of the Week component with construction paper (white and red) and one sleeve protector.  I cut the sleeve protector into thirds.  It was as simple as that :)

The magnetic calendar was a donation from my aunt.  Her now-grown children used it when they were little.  I like that it is a dry erase board plus magnetic.  The magnets have lots of activity options along with the numbers and months.

The wooden welcome sign with the wooden items came from my grandmother.   She was going through her things and decided she did not need it.  I thought it would make a nice addition to my Circle Time wall.  It was actually hanging on the wall before I put together the other components of my Circle Time wall.

I also made a liturgical calendar wheel from CatholicIcing.com.  My son likes to play with it and he had placed it in another location when I took this picture. 

Do you do Circle Time with your children?  If so, what do you include in your Circle Time?