In preschoolfun and engaging circle games can teach many crucial skills that children canthen use to deepen their play. Eye contact, turn-taking, understandingemotions, and listening are all key skills in life. The benefits of short,snappy, fun circle games that really work cannot be overestimated.
However, there seem to be so many games around that don’t really work that well in reality. This article presents just the games that are tried and tested, that children really ‘get’ quickly, the games they will ask for again and again.
These are the cream of the crop from my book – 101 Circle Time Games…That Actually Work! (that you can check out here).
This book offers the very best math circle games, literacy games, physical circle times, mindfulness, circle times, and so much more! Check it out here.
So what are the best circle time games for preschool? Some excellent circle time games for preschool are:
- Snowball
- Don’tWake The Monkey
- PassThe Rhythm
- ActThe Emotion
- ParachutePairs
- PassThe Potato
- WonkeyDonkey
- BabyBear Game
- PassThe Smile
- SpinThe Bottle
- SparePlace
- PicnicMemory Game
- AtThe Zoo
- WhereIs It?
- PassThe Puppet
- MatchingSocks
- PassThe Ball Round The Circle
- Change!
- MissingChild Game
- MysteryObject
- MysteryBox
Read on to find a detailed description of each and check out our amazing online courses to help take all of these developmental concepts to the next level. But for now, read below to help to bring your preschool circle times to life!
1.Snowball
This game can be adapted in lots ofdifferent ways.
The idea is that you have lots ofpieces of paper that all have pairs of matching pictures on. The adult justdraws the pictures on themselves. For example, they could be simple pictures ofshapes. You could have two separate pictures of a triangle, a square, a circle,and a pentagon etc. You need as many pictures as you have children. Forexample, if you have 12, you need 6 pairs of matching pictures.
The pictures could be anything. Niceeasy ones are things like numbers, shapes, letters, animals, weather, oremotion faces.
Children are handed a piece of papereach. They screw it into a ball – a snowball – and throw it into the middle ofthe circle. Then they have to go and pick up a ball. The only rule is that theycan’t pick their own snowball up. They must pick up someone else’s.
When they pick up their new snowball,they unscrew it and then try to find their partner. If you have an odd numberof children, you will have someone without a partner, and this is normally the‘champion’!
Children develop lots of skills through this game. They have to show each other, they must look at other people, and it helps to ask.
Also they will usually have to go and standnext to a partner that is not their best friend.
2. Don’t Wake The Monkey!
You don’t need a monkey for this game – any puppet or teddy will work fine. I just happen to use a large monkey puppet.
Put the puppetor teddy into the middle of the circle. They are ‘asleep’.
Then get either a tambourine, bells or keys. In a moment you are going to pass these around the circle as silently as possible.
Before that,though, there is a chant to all say together in a whisper. It goes like this:
Little monkey’s sleeping on the ground.
Sh! Sh! Sh!
We must not wake him with a sound.
Sh! Sh! Sh!
Then, assilently as possibly, try passing the instrument around the circle. Thechildren have to work together, and try and get it all the way around.
Another way ofplaying this game, is to split into two teams. The two teams form two circles,each with their own instrument and sleeping puppet in the middle.
The two teams then battle it out, and see which one can be the quietest passing the instrument around. This is a great variation for competitive children.
3.Pass The Rhythm
This is agreat game for early phonics as well as behaviour.
There are twoways of playing it, an easy way, or a slightly harder way. The harder way isgenerally much better for social skills and turn-taking.
In the easyform of the game, the adult makes up a quick rhythm (maybe limit them to three hits),using different parts of the body. For example, tap your head once, and thenyour knees twice. Everyone copies. Then do another rhythm, for example, tapyour shoulders, then legs, then feet. The children copy.
When they become good at that, then you can move on to the harder version of the game. In this the children will make up their own rhythm. Start with the first child in the circle. They make up a rhythm of 3 actions, for example, tap head then shoulders then legs. The other copy. Go around the circle, taking it in turns to each have one go.
If you’d like to find out a whole lot more rhythm games, then why not check out my article the essential guide to rhythm sticks games, featuring at least 12 ideas.
4. Act The Emotion
Have three emotion cards in the middle of the circle – happy, sad, angry. You just draw a happy face, sad face and angry face on pieces of paper.
The adult goes first to show them whatto do. They stand up and act out being one of these emotions. For example, ifit is sad they bow their head, hunch their shoulders, mooch around and do a sadface. The children point to which emotion they think you are feeling.
Then it is their turn. One at a time achild will stand up and act out one of the emotions. The others try to guesswhich one it is. Talk about the body language and facial expressions.
5. Parachute Pairs
Parachute games are brilliant for young children to develop all sorts of listening and cooperation skills.
This pairs game is a nice simple one to have a go of. The idea is all everyone holds the parachute at about waist height. Then you pick two children, by saying their names. They are the two children that are going to swop places.
The idea is that the adult goes‘1,2,3!’ On the ‘3’ everyone lifts the parachute up over their head as high asthey can, so the chute mushrooms up in the air.
At that moment the two children run under the parachute and swap places.
Then bring the parachute down and pickthe next two children. Repeat the same process.
A slightly harder version of this gameis the fruit salad game. In this you give everyone a name of a fruit. Go roundsaying ‘Apple, banana, strawberry, pear’, or something like that. Have aboutfour fruits, and give them out equally so you’ll have roughly the same numberof children each being an apple or a strawberry.
Then go ‘1,2,3!’ On the 3 lift theparachute and shout a fruit name, for example ‘strawberry’.
The idea is that all the strawberrieswill run underneath the parachute and swop places. Then repeat for otherfruits.
This is a bit harder just because thechildren have to remember what fruit they are. For some this is an extremelytricky task.
Did you know you can also play all sorts of math and phonics games with parachutes?! Try reading my favorite 14 Parachute Math Games . Also, one of the best ways of keeping phonics exciting and engaging is by trying some of these 10 Brilliant Phonics Parachute Games.
There is also a whole chapter on the very best parachute circle time games, that you can find in my book 101 Circle Time Games…That Actually Work! (which you can check out here).
6.Pass The Potato
This game isbit like pass the parcel, only you use a potato! All that is required is apotato and some music.
Put some musicon and pass the potato around the circle. When the music stops, whoever isholding the potato is out and has to stand up and sit outside the circle.Continue until you have a champion.
Some childrenreact better to being ‘out’ than others.
7. Wonkey Donkey!
This is areally fun game, that helps children listen to the voices of others.
One child isthe Wonkey Donkey! They come and sit in the middle of the circle and put ablindfold on. They also put on either an old shirt, or an apron or a bib.Whatever you have to hand will work.
The idea isthat you pick one child to come up and hold on to the back of the child’s shirtor apron. This is the donkey’s ‘tail’. That person shakes the ‘tail’ and shouts‘Wonkey Donkey!’
The idea isthat the Wonkey Donkey has to guess who has shook their tail!
This gamehelps them to begin to recognize the voices of their friends. It also tunesthem in and gets them listening.
8. Baby BearGame
This is one of my favorite listening games.
To play it you need a blindfold, a jar of honey and a noisy instrument of some sort – usually a tambourine or some keys work well.
The idea isthat you get a child to come and sit in the middle of the circle. They are BabyBear, and they put a blindfold on so they can’t see. Baby Bear is ‘asleep’.
Put the honeybehind Baby Bear.
There is now achant that goes like this:
Isn’t it funny how a bear likes honey!
You give thetambourine to one of the children in the circle. Their job is to stand up asquietly as possible, and sneak over to Baby Bear, pick up the honey, and sneakback to where they are sitting with it.
The tricky bitis that they have to try to hide both the honey and the tambourine behind theirback.
They keeptheir hands behind their back, and everyone else puts their hands behind theirback as well, so anyone could be the thief!
Then Baby Bearwakes up (takes the blindfold off). The bear has three guesses to work out whothe thief is.
There areusually lots of clues if everyone stays quite – footsteps, little jingles fromthe tambourine and other noises like that.
If thechildren are having problems putting the tambourine behind their back, then theeasier version of the game is to swop the tambourine with honey, so you takethe honey back but leave the tambourine behind the bear. You get less soundclues this way, but it is easy for very young children to accomplish.
There seem to be many variations of this game, and I have seen it played with the Bear as a pirate, with someone robbing his treasure, or as a Giant and someone robs his keys. The basic skills behind all these games are the same.
9.Pass The Smile
This is acircle game that is great for eye contact, turn-taking and thinking aboutemotions.
The adult tobegin smiles at the first child. They ‘pass’ the smile to the child next tothem, by looking at them and smiling. Then the children pass the smile all theway around the circle. You may need to give the occasional child a bit of areminder to look or pass it on.
You can alsopass a frown, a wink, a nod or some other facial expression. Great for thinkingabout emotions, and what our faces do when we are feeling different ways.
10. Spin The Bottle!
This is the child-friendly version ofthis classic game.
All you need is an empty bottle. Thisgame works better on a harder surface, such as wood or laminate flooring. Thebottle doesn’t really spin enough on a carpet.
Put the bottle in the middle of thecircle, and choose one child to come and spin it. They spin the bottle andshout one child’s name. That child has to jump up and pick up the bottle beforeit stops spinning.
Then they spin it and shout a child’sname, and just carry on repeating.
11. Spare Place
In this game you need cards with pictures on. The pictures all have to be different. A good example would be to use pictures of animals. You could have a full range of animals – a cow, a horse, a dog, a cat, a mouse etc.
Sit in a circle, but have one big spacein the circle, easily big enough for a child to sit in.
Give each child a picture of an animal,and you also have one spare picture that goes in the space.
Say an animal name. The child holdingthat picture will move to the spare space. They then say an animal name, andthat child will move to the space that the first child has vacated.
12. Picnic Memory Game
There are manyvariations of this classic memory game, but here is just one way of playing it.
For this game you need a bag of simple pretend (or real) food and a picnic hamper or box of some sort to put them in.
There is aneasy and a hard version of the game. For the easy version, what you do is take onepiece of food out of the bag first. For example, let’s say it is an orange. Thefirst person would say, ‘For our picnic we took an orange.’
They put theorange in the box so everyone can see it.
Then the nextperson goes. They take a piece of food out, for example a banana, and say ‘Forour picnic we took an orange and a banana.’
They put thebanana next to the orange and the game continues.
This is mucheasier than the hard version, because you can see the food, and just need to beable to say it in a sequence.
For the harderversion, the idea is that you put one piece of food into the box and then closethe lid so you can’t see it.
For example,the first person says ‘On our picnic we took an orange.’ They put the orange inthe box and close the lid.
Then the nextperson says, ‘On our picnic we took an orange and a banana.’ They open the lidand put the banana next to the orange, then close it.
There is lotsof memory and listening and looking required in this game. You may want tostart with just 3 or 4 objects, though some children are amazing at rememberinga huge number.
Just see how it goes, and make the game easier or harder as required.
There is a whole chapter on ‘memory circle time games…that actually work’ in my book 101 Circle Time Games…That Actually Work.
13. At The Zoo
This isanother variation of the picnic memory game.
Have a story bag with animals in. Say ‘In the jungle, we saw a (pick one out) an elephant!’ Pass it to next person. ‘In the jungle we saw an elephant and a tiger etc etc.’ Keep going just like that.
There are manyvariations that you can play on this classic memory game. All you need is somekind of objects in a bag and some sort of context. Other ideas could be a bagof vehicles. Say something like ‘On the road I saw a …lorry.’
You could usedinosaurs, or superheroes, or whatever you like. Be creative! Whatever thechildren are interested in will get the best response.
14. Where IsIt?
Have one childsitting in the middle of the circle. They put a blindfold on.
Then get a noisy instrument – it could be a tambourine or keys or something similar. The idea is then that the children pass the noisy instrument around, all giving it a shake when they are holding it before passing it on to the next person.
When the adultsays ‘stop’ the person holding the tambourine holds it silently.
The child inthe middle is going to try to point to whoever they think is holding theinstrument. Then do it again.
15. Pass The Puppet
This is agreat activity that can be adapted in many ways, and is one that I play a lot,possibly the most out of this article.
Have a puppet, and it is good to have some sort of story. For example, the puppet is happy because his friend has shared their toys. You basically have some sort of them. The puppet might be sad for a reason, or worried, or anything like that.
Pass the puppet round, and everyone says one thing that makes them happy, or sad, or appreciative of a friend, or whatever the theme is. You can only speak when you’re holding the puppet!
If you’re interested in reading more puppet games, then check out my article about the 22 best uses of puppets in teaching.
16. Matching Socks
Some groupgames are great for mixing and working with people that you wouldn’t normallywork with.
The matchingsocks game is a great example of this. The idea is that you have lots of pairsof socks. The sock pairs all need to be a different design, and you need atleast one sock per child.
Give the socksout! The children stand up and try to find their matching sock partner.
This gets themthinking about color and pattern. It also gets them looking at their friends,and also standing next to a partner that they wouldn’t necessarily choose tostand next to.
17. Pass Balls Round The Circle
Simple ballgames are great for young children, and this is about as simple as it gets.
The very simplest way of playing this game is to have one ball. All you do is pass the ball around the circle.
The slightly harder version of this game is to have several balls. You pass these round the circle!
This game is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to ball games that preschoolers love. Why not check out my 30 Preschool Ball Games For The Whole Curriculum.
The book contains a whole chapter on simple and imaginative passing games like this.
18. Change!
To extend this game yet again, pass several balls round, but when you say ‘change’ the balls all have to go in the opposite direction. This is not as easy as it sounds!
The next stageof this game is to have two colors of balls. For example, have three blue ballsand three yellow balls. The blue balls are going to go one direction, and theyellow balls are going to go in the opposite direction.
See how youget on! The tricky bit is that some children will get two balls at once. Theywill have to switch them over to keep them going.
When, and if,the children are doing well at this game, you can then introduce a ‘change’again. So when the balls are all going around in the two directions, say ‘change’,and see if they can move them back the other way. This takes a lot of teamworkand cooperation! It also is good for conflict resolution, as some children willnaturally get it wrong, and you will be encouraging children to support eachother.
If you likedthe sound of these simple ball games, you will be pleased to know that I havewritten 30 Preschool Ball Games for The Whole Curriculum. There is a host ofball games for math, phonics, physical development and more – the wholecurriculum. Why not take a look?
19. Missing Child Game.
This is agreat game for eye contact.
The idea ofthis game is that all children close their eyes. This is the tricky bit! They haveto try and do it properly, and no cheating!
Then tap onechild on the shoulder. That child is going to go and hide somewhere where theothers cannot see them.
Then tell thechildren to open their eyes. Who has gone missing?
This moment is great for them all to be looking into each other’s faces to see who is there and who isn’t. Eye contact is a massive target for so many children, and this game really helps this skill. Looking for more eye contact games? Why not check out my 12 Fantastic Eye Contact Group Games.
There is aversion of this missing child game using a parachute. In that version the childrensit around the edge of a parachute that is on the floor. They close their eyes,and you tap one child on the shoulder. They go under the chute and sit in themiddle of it.
When theothers open their eyes they can see a child under the parachute, but who is it?
20. Mystery Object
This is a bit like Chinese whispers,but with an object. Have a mystery object in a bag or box (or even an envelope).The object is just to really focus the attention of the children.
Whisper what the object is to the childnext to you, and they have to pass it round the circle whispering to each otheras they go.
When they have gone all the way around,the last person guesses what it is. Open the box or bag and reveal have theygot it right!
21. Mystery Box
This issimilar to the last game, but without the whispering element.
In this youhave a box, and inside the box is a mystery object. What you do is pass the boxaround and everyone gets to shake the box, hear what is inside and then guesswhat they think it is.
After you havepassed it all the way around the circle, and everyone has guessed, then you areready for the tricky bit. You ask ‘Who guessed it was a bottle?’ The childrenpoint to who they think guessed it was that. ‘Who guessed it was a lion?’ Youjust carry on saying the children’s suggestions, and the children point to whothey think it was.
At the end open up the box and see what it is!
101 Circle Time Games…That Actually Work!
If you’ve found these games beneficial, then I would definitely recommend checking out the book!
It’s called 101 Circle Time Games…That Actually Work! and it contains:
-Active circle games
-Phonics and literacy circle games
-Math circle games
-Emotion and mindfulness circle games
-Memory circle games
-And so much more!
You can check out further details of the book here.
Conclusion
So there youhave the complete guide to preschool circle time games that actually work!
Children learn the most through play at this young age, but some well structured and engaging group games develop lots of skills that children can use in their play. Skills such as eye contact, turn-taking and cooperating are the key elements of play.
Good luck with these circle time games, and if you try any out feel free to share this post!
If you’ve found this beneficial, then you will probably also like The 40 Greatest Parachute Games For Kids.
Table of Contents
