As a preschool special education teacher, I am always looking for ways to make learning more engaging for my students – and easier for me. Recently, I discovered a way to gain students’ attention and increase their engagement during our circle time. This is by using these student visuals for our preschool circle time songs. I use these almost every day and am amazed at the difference they have made during our large group time.
What Are Student Visuals for Preschool Circle Time?
Student visuals for preschool circle time are pictures that illustrate songs that we use during circle time. The individual student visuals look like this:
I also use larger versions of these visuals at the front of the circle time area. This allows me to refer to the parts of the song at the front of the carpet as the students follow along with their song strips.
Why Use Song Visuals During Preschool Circle Time?
There are many reasons why individual preschool song visuals are such a game-changer. Here are several:
Individual Song Visuals Offer the Most Engagement Potential During Circle Time
In general, letting each student hold their own song strip visual is making the most of two other highly-engaging activities at any large group gathering: songs and song visuals.
Any experienced teacher knows that songs are a great tool to gain the attention of young students.
- Need to gain the attention of busy students? Start singing/playing a song.
- Need to encourage students to start sitting down at circle time? Start singing/playing a song.
- Need to teach a new concept? Start singing/playing a song.
In fact, when gaining interest during circle time, songs are the first step to engagement.
Second, adding visuals to preschool songs raises the engagement level even more. It connects the auditory and visual, which in turn, increases the interest.
However, these song visuals take that engagement even further. By giving each student a visual, you provide them with a near-point copy of what they are hearing. It’s something they can hold in their hands, and follow along with.
I encourage my students to follow along with the song by either asking, “Can you find it (Pete the Cat’s red shoe?) as we sing, or sometimes we add something like this tiny clothespin so they can move it along with the song.
Song Visuals Can Be Excellent Invitations to “Sit Down and Get Started” at Circle Time
One of the ways to ease the transition into circle time is to start singing/playing a song as soon as it is time for the student to sit down. You don’t want to wait until they sit down and sit quietly to begin, because in preschool:
In general, if you start singing/playing something interesting, they will come much quicker.
Song visuals are an open invitation to come to circle time. I place one on the arm of each cube chair, and they come quickly to get theirs.
Song Visuals Promote Extra Learning at Circle Time
Another advantage of student song visuals is that they make “in-hand” visuals to work on concepts such as “first”, “next” and “last”. These are language concepts that we work on all the time in my preschool special education class, and we can apply them to the songs that we sing.
Another way you can put learning into the visuals? Use them for sequencing. You can easily cut a visual into pieces to work on sequencing skills.
Interested in your own student visuals for circle time songs? You can find them here in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store.
