Creating a Circle Time Board

As part of our morning routine during kindergarten/preschool, we would fill in dates on a calendar, look at our art picture of the week (from Artistic Pursuits) and memorize a Scripture verse. I transferred this to our bulletin board eventually and it became a mini-circle time.  The girls enjoyed this morning ritual, and the routine of it got us all into "school" mode.

As we're beginning first grade / kindergarten, I've decided to take our circle time routine to the next level! I got quite a bit of inspiration for it from Jolanthe over at Homeschool Creations (And quite a bit of material from her free printables!). It took a while for me to figure out exactly what I wanted to include and what wasn't necessary for us at this time.

Once I came up with what our circle time should cover, then it was time to create! I went to Wal-Mart, bought a $8 display board (which my 6yo promptly cracked once I got home - aargh!) and some velcro stickers, then went to work. It took a while to get my layout set, but I'm pretty happy with it overall! It includes:

• Scripture memory poster (We're doing Psalm 1, per Sonlight's suggestion)
• Daily weather chart (from Homeschool Creations)
• A spot for our weekly art study picture
•  Skip-counting facts to review (again, from Jolanthe's site)
• Days we've been in school (Jolanthe yet again - this is to help my girls get a better grasp on 1s, 10s, 100s, etc)
• A spot for the poster we're going to make each week for our unit study based on From Akebu to Zapotec (Another Sonlight curriculum resource)
• Our Chinese vocabulary flashcards
• A spot for my girls to display one of their pictures from the week (they like to show off their work!)

And that's it! Anyone else do circle time? I'd love to see pics and hear more about how you've implemented this type of school routine.