Celebrating with Circle Time in November: Leaves

Every day before we read our seasonal picture book aloud, we celebrate in another very important way.  We do Circle Time.  During Circle Time, we all gather together to sing songs, recite poems, and do finger plays and movement games.  I have intentionally chosen specific songs, poems, finger plays, and games to perfectly match the seasonal theme of the books we are reading.  We follow the same Circle Time for the whole week, always following the pattern of Circle Time and then read aloud time. 

Circle Time is another simple and joyful way we can give our children time to celebrate.  It is another opportunity to notice and cherish God's truth, goodness, and beauty.  It helps us to experience the seasons and the rhythm and the order that God created in a way that all of us can more fully understand and be a part of. 

It is easy to see that children love to sing and dance and move around.  These are some of the most natural ways they express joy.  So, it makes sense, to make singing and dancing and moving around a part of our every day celebrations. 

And let us not forget what we are really doing here.  We are celebrating every day things every day.  This gives these every day things (like leaves and squirrels) a feeling of importance.  We are taking the common, the simple, the every day things, (that many people just look past and fail to notice) and making them big and important and special.   
​
Here is how we do Circle Time in November to celebrate leaves. 

---

Leaves
November Circle Time
Songs, Poems, Finger Plays, Movement Games

Invitation
 
Come to the circle where dreams are found,
Take my hand let’s dance around,
Halla, halla, halla, hello,
Round and round the circle we go.

•  All join hands in a circle.  Move around in a circle while continuing to hold hands.
• Fall to the ground, all sitting in a circle at the end.

 
Opening
 
Winter is white.
Springtime is green.
Summer is golden.
Autumn aflame.
Four lovely seasons to have in a year. 
Sing them by color.  Sing them by name.
 
 
In the Autumn garden, scarlet evening glow.
Apples ripening, brightening, ripening, brown the hazels grow.

• Autumn, Wynstones Press

 
 
Leaves
 
 Come little leaves said the wind one day,
Come o’er the meadow with me to play.
Put on your dress of red and gold,
Summer is gone and the days grow cold.
Soon as the leaves heard the wind’s loud call,
Down they came fluttering, one and all;
Over the fields they danced and flew,
Singing the soft little songs they knew.  

• Children can put on red, orange, and gold play silks like capes and dance around while reciting this poem.

 
 
Five Golden Leaves*
Five Golden Leaves hanging from a tree, dancing golden in the sun,
Then along came the wind and he blew through the town, whoosh!
And one little leaf tumbled down to the ground.

• Continue with 4,3,2,1. 
• End with “and the last little leaf tumbled down to the ground.”
• Start with holding up 5 fingers.  Take away one at a time. 
• Make a big wind blowing sound for “whoosh”.
• From Sing a Song of Seasons by Mary Thienes Schunemann

 
 
Little leaves fall gently down,
Red and yellow, orange and brown,
Whirling, whirling, round and round,
Quietly dancing without a sound,
Falling softly to the ground,
Down and down and down.

• Children can pretend to be leaves whirling, quietly dancing, falling softly, down and down… until they are all the way down on the ground and sitting.
• This is the perfect poem to end Circle Time with.  They will be sitting silently ready to hear the story.

 
​
*All of the *starred* segments are songs and can be sung to their proper tunes.  Most of the songs I use during Circle Time are from Sing a Song of Seasons by Mary Thienes-Schunemann.  I highly recommend purchasing this Songbook and CD (all in one nicely bound spiral book).  I got mine from Bella Luna Toys for $24.99.   
 
*All other segments are to be used as poems, finger plays, or movement games.  Most of these come from A Child's Seasonal Treasury by Betty Jones and Wynstones Press books: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, Spindrift, and Gateway.

*I have tried to give simple ideas of how to move to many of these, but feel free to create your own motions.