Shapes: Teaching About Circles

If you are teaching about circles there are many many activities you can use in your classroom. You may want to start out with a book about circles. One of my favorites is The Missing Piece (An Ursula Nordstrom Book) by Shell Silverstein. It is a great way to open this lesson and the book works especially well if you sing a little song while the the pac man like figure says "I'm looking for my missing piece..." When the pac man finds his missing piece and becomes a circle life becomes way too fast for him. It is a great story that your kids will probably want to hear again and again.

Circle Crafts
Circle Lion from DLTK Crafts-scissors, glue, printer, paper

Circle Caterpillar Craft from First School-scissors, glue, printer, paper, colors

Circle Games
One of my favorite circle games which is a variation of Duck Duck Goose (another good one) is A Tisket a Tasket. Use a brightly colored scarf and have one child walk around while you sing:
A tisket a tasket
a green and yellow basket
I wrote a letter to a friend
and this is where I dropped it
I dropped it I dropped it
and this is where I dropped it
I wrote a letter to a friend
and this is where I dropped it.

My words are not exactly the same as the original but they encourage the child to drop the scarf and not just walk around for twenty minutes. Once they drop the scarf behind another child the sitting child gets up and chases them back to their own spot. There are no losers. If the first child gets back to the right spot first you say Yea! If he doesn't you say Yea! Now its ____ turn. You know how this works.

Coloring Pages

Make a Pizza Coloring Page from Crayola

Let's Play Ball Coloring Page from Crayola

Circle Songs

Circle Song
(Sung to: Jingle Bells)
author unknown

Round circles, Round circles,

Round circles to make,

Oh what fun it is to draw round

circles to shake.

Oh, Round circles, Round circles,

Round circles to make,

Oh what fun it is to draw round

circles to shake.

Bulletin Board Idea
Using bulletin board letters write "Can You Find a Circle?" Then have the children cut out examples of things that are circles from old magazines and newspapers and glue them to a piece of construction paper.

If you have some great ways to teach about circles, please feel free to add them to the comments section under this post!