As we head into weeks 4, 5, 6, and beyond of Stay at Home orders, your virtual circle time might be feeling a little stale. Here are some innovative ways to mix it up for you, your parents, and your little ones.
Use the Epic app to expand your personal library by the thousands. The benefit of using an ebook library like Epic is that it allows you to enter full screen mode, giving your kiddos a much larger view of the pictures while you read. You can also create accounts for your kids so they can re-read books on their own.
Create a virtual museum visit. Select one piece of art you think will catch your children’s attention and use screen share to show it during circle time. Ask questions like, What do you notice? What do you wonder? What does it make you think about? Wayne Thiebaud’s Cakes is a perfect painting to pair with a cooking project, birthday celebration, rendition of Pat-A-Cake, play dough activity, or all of the above!
Make use of live cameras at zoos and national parks. For example, check out the panda cam at the National Zoo and discuss what you’re seeing. Read a book about pandas to see if you can observe any of their natural behaviors on the live cam.
Use a digital storytelling app to create a collaborative story. There are tons of options available, but we like like Toontastic 3D. Work together to create a story, or invite children to make their own story to share with the class later.
Create a story about your class. Use photos from a special project or field trip to write a story about your kids to read aloud during circle time. You can use something simple like Google Slides to create it and then export as a .pdf file to share with families.
This is challenging and uncharted territory for everyone, but we will make it through smarter and stronger than we were before, and hopefully with a few new tricks to apply once we’re back in the classroom as well!
Wonderschool is a network of quality in-home early childhood programs. Our mission is to ensure that every child has access to a home away from home that helps them realize their full potential. We work with experienced educators and child care providers to help them start their own child care or preschool out of their homes, whether they live in apartments, condos, or homes that they rent or own.
