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Circus Misc
Contact_FullName: Bonnie Contact_Email: Bonniebeave Area: Circus-Welcome Unit Idea: At the Christian preschool where I teach 3 year olds, we decorate our rooms for Open House based on themes. This year I have chosen "Welcome to Our Circus." My door will say "Pop on in to Pre-K" with a popcorn machine and each child's name on a piece of popcorn. For a BB idea I will use a plastic table cloth from the dollar store to make a circus tent. Just cut the table cloth down the middle, leaving it together at one end. Take the end that is still together and staple it to the top of the BB. Pull back both sides to open the tent and use bright paper for the background. You can add a clown holding a bunch of balloons with a child's name on each balloon. Other display ideas include: "Clowning around at Pre-K" with picture of each child (dressed in clown wig and nose, fairly cheap items at costume shop) stapled to a balloon held by a clown/ "Work to Roar About" picture of lion and lion tamer with child's work around it/ "Happy Birthday" clown with balloons, each child's name and birthday on balloon/ "Have a Ball at Pre-K" clown juggling, with each child's name on ball/ "Here's the Scoop" an announcement BB with picture of ice cream cones, small cones with announcements on scoop/ "Jesus... How Sweet He Is" each child's name on circus food cut-outs such as cotton candy, caramel apples, popcorn, peanuts, ice cream (clip at books have a ton of patterns for this and may give you other BB ideas)/ "We're nuts about Jesus" picture of circus elephant and peanuts (can add names on peanuts) I have had an opportunity to use each of these ideas in the past and they have all been a big hit. My list goes on and on. Contact me, I'm an open book! Contact_FullName: Nancy Contact_Email: dcsmfa@sbcglobal.net Area: circus Idea: Collect a box of colorful scarves. Give 2 scarves to each child. Instruct the child to "throw throw catch catch". Now he is juggling. This idea will spark tons of other juggling with scarves ideas. Contact_FullName: Catherine Contact_Email: porkchppr@aol.com date:: 06/06/02 Area: Circus Idea: Our special ed kindergarten class performed a circus for other students and families. We had a tight-rope walker, balance beam or tape of the floor can be used. Make sure you have a small umbrella for balance! Clowns came out with whip cream pies to throw them at clown face cut outs taped to the wall. A mat was pulled out for our terrific tumblers, and we used our trapeze swing for our daring trapeze artist. We used a moveable staircase and a small pit of balls for our high diver and created a small ramp covered with black butcher block paper and a scoter for our human cannon ball. We had a tattoo lady, a lion who jumped through hoops, a beautiful lady parade, and a strong man. The weights were made from a wrapping paper tube and black balloons. Those who were shy about "performing" took tickets and sold popcorn (made earlier and bagged) and cotton candy we had donated. The show was a great success. The kids loved practicing and performing and the audience went wild with applause. Of course one teacher was the ringmaster, another the lion tamer and other support staff took the job of crowd control. We had shirts made that said "security" on the back! A wonderful time was had by all!!!
8-20-00Funny Clown Bows Place the tissue paper on the work surface so one of the long sides is closest to you. Make a fold on a long side 1/2 in. from the edge. Press hard to make the fold stay in place. Turn the paper over and make another fold about 1/2 in. from first fold. Turn and fold again and again until all the paper is folded. Wrap a piece of tape around the center of the folded paper. Unfold the ends to make the bow. Bend the pipe cleaner into the shape of the letter C. Tape the center of the pipe cleaner to the center of the bow. Wear bow around your neck as a clown's bow tie or in your hair as a headband.
8-20-00Circus Cup Puppets 1. With scissors (adult job) cut slit in bottom of paper cup the width of a craft stick. 2. Place stick in slit and glue 1 circle of construction paper on each side of stick to form head. Decorate as desired. Suggestions...pipe cleaners for arms...cotton balls for hair. Buttons, etc…
8-20-00Pom-pom Nose Cut a large triangle from construction paper and decorate as desired. Attach triangle to the top of the paper plate as a hat. Draw a clown face minus the nose. Yarn may be used for hair. Poke a hole in the center of the clown face and insert the tied end of the pom-pom A little tape on the back will make sure it stays in place.
5-11-00Chalkboard story - May be drawn on a large piece of paper Tommy and his father went to the circus. When they entered the big top, the first thing they saw was the big arena (draw a large circle). Tommy and his dad sat on one side of the arena. They could look across the arena and see the people on the other side (draw clown hair on both sides of the circle). The band began to play (Draw a triangle clown hat on top of the circle). They could see the conductor leading the band . (Draw a circle at the top of the triangle). The lights went out and a spotlight shown on the ringmaster (Draw a circle in the middle of the large circle to make a nose) "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the greatest show on earth. For your entertainment we have the dancing, prancing horses. Watch them dance (Draw a star for an eye). Over here we have the lions. Watch them jump through hoops. Here them roar( Draw the other eye). High over head we have the daring young men on the flying trapeze (Draw a smiling mouth). Tommy and his dad had a great time at the circus. When Tommy got home he could hardly wait to tell his mom everything he had seen. Mom, Dad and I sat in the audience and looked across the arena at the other side. We heard the band and saw the conductor. The ringmaster was great. We watched the horses and lions. The flying people on the trapeze were fun. But, do you know what I liked the best? THE CLOWNS!
Date: 3-8-00Circus train: Use standard size construction paper (all colors), space black strips of paper going across (to resemble bars), add a piece of bulletin board border across the top, then 2 circles for wheels. Use animal cracker cookies as animals to put inside. String all cars together to make train. Looks great when done!
Date: 3-1-00Lower the Sensory Table as close to the ground as possible if it has a spout on the bottom try putting it up on blocks for support and function. Fill the table with Pine hamster/rabbit shavings or bedding and Styrofoam peanuts. My kids were covered head to toe! I have the challenge of finding activities for children that are just 3 and children that missed the kindergarten cut off by 1 day and ALL of my children loved this activity. The next day half of them asked if we could do it again. I was really lucky to be able to borrow an extra and have 2 tables available. Contact_FullName:
Date: 3-1-00Oatmeal Container Circus hats Measure and draw a line approximately 2" from the top of the container. use a craft knife to cut 3/4 of the way around the container on the line. Then, cut a 1/4 semicircle above the line. This will become the bill of the hat. Provide scissors, construction paper, yarn glue, a hole punch, crayons, and stickers. After the hats are finished and dry, help each child make a chin strap by punching a hole in each side of the hat and then tying a piece of yarn through each hole.
Date: 3-1-00Weightlifter Weights Supplies needed: several packages of large and small disposable pie tins, glue, black paint, paintbrushes, scissors, paper towel tubes, and large wrapping paper tubes. Trace around the end of the tubes onto the pie tins. Then, cut out the holes they have traced. Cover the edges of the holes with masking tape. Next, heave them paint the cardboard tubes black. While the paint is drying, the children make the weights by gluing two pie plates of the same size together. have the children carefully slide the weights onto each end of the tube, glue the edges of the weights to the tube. Voila! A Barbell!
Date: 3-1-00During my circus unit one year, I let all the children color a circus animal and I glued each of them to a separate sheet of construction paper and stapled that to the bullitin board. That was the "cage". Then I strung yarn from the top to the bottom of each cage for the bars. The children loved it.
Date: 1-30-00Clowns Stretch a wire coat hanger from hanger and center of bottom. Cut out a circle for head; triangle for hat. Let children decorate hat and draw face on circle. Tape at hook of hanger. Trace child's own hands and feet (with shoes on) and cut out. Tape hands on each side and feet at bottom point. Very cute!!
Date: 1-8-00Clown Bows wallpaper samples work best. Cut out an 8x10 piece of wallpaper from a sample book let children fold the wallpaper back and forth and then tie a piece of yarn in the middle and then use a paper clip to fasten to their shirt and they have a funky bow tie. Date: 12-30-99Have the children walk on those moon walker shoes for Man on Stilts. Children can also try to juggle scarves. ideaGive child blown up balloon and paper plate, paper plate acts as clown's collar. balloon is clown's head & face. can paper mache balloon if you want project to take many days. if not and want short version children can draw features of clown's face directly onto balloon with permanent magic marker or paint, put small hole in center of plate so you can thread the tie end of the balloon through the hole and keep the balloon stable. glue party hat to top of clown's balloon head. can put yarn hair on before gluing hat on. can add exaggerated features, i.e. big ears, large red nose, etc. paint and decorate collar with sequins, dot-art, etc. 8-27-99
Date: 8-19-99we spent some time making masks and practicing circus tricks. then we invited our families in to see our circus. we made popcorn and I made programs for each family to take home. the children loved it!
Date: 7-25-99Have children make their own clown hair. Cut the center out of a paper plate to fit the child's head. Color the paper plate ring then cut short pieces of colorful yarn to glue around the edges. Make sure the yarn is short enough that it doesn't hang in the kids eyes. Date: 6-1-99Class Clowns: Have each child decorate the blank side of a large brown paper bag. Use sequins, pom-poms, glitter glue, and paints. When bags are finished, cut a hole in the top for their heads, and a hole on each side for their arms. Take construction paper and make cone shapes for hats. Decorate the hats with different colored pom-poms or colored cotton balls. Paint faces to make them look like clowns, and go on a circus parade around your center. The other children are bound to smile at these adorable clowns!
Date: 6-1-99Circus Elephants Use pieces of dryer vents or empty paper towel tubes with string attached for trunks. Paper ears attached to side of paper plate with hole the size of child's head. Children are able to cut out ears and color them. They also could color tubes for trunks. Pretend to be trick elephants and choose one to be elephant trainer. Feed the elephants candy circus peanuts when they do a trick.
Date: 6-1-99I love to do a circus theme unit. I would turn the entire room into a circus using our parachute. You can hang it from the cieling and it has a very festive dramatic effect. The kids love it. Also, at the end of the unit I would paint faces and have a circus party with popcorn, peanuts and punch. We has a blast. Date: 1-8-99To make a circus tent: Take 1 sheet of newspaper and start rolling it very tightly from 1 corner. You can even use a toothpick to start rolling small. When you get to the end, put a piece of tape to hold. Make a whole bunch of these newspaper rolls. You will then be able to tape them together to make the structure. I did 4 squares first, putting 2 more rolls in the middle to join the corners, making an X. They are the walls. Then I stood them up and taped them together to form a pentagon. Yes 1 side is missing... that's for the door! On that side, I put 1 roll across on top, and 1 on the bottom. Then you put another roll going up from each corner of the top pentagon and join them all in the middle to make the roof. You can then put a parachute on top and it looks like a circus tent! You could also tape more newspaper on it and paint it. These rolls can be used to construct many different things! 6-30-98 Name: Susan E-Mail: mswasser@salsgiver.com Circus day tape 3 rings on the floor and have 3 different activities in each ring. Jump through hoops . Balance on ring (Tightrope). Circle time could be in the other ring. Have a big Parachute hung for the "Big Top" Have children dress as animals and we even had face painting for clowns. 6-16-98 Name: Carol E-Mail: apple@wantree.com.au For more circus ideas take a look at the Totline Circus theme book.........I have modified some of the ideas from it in order that they fit my kids and resources. A great book full of ideas, ABC circus pictures, games and more. Well worth the money to add it to your bookshelf. And while looking at it, check out their Space, Zoo and Farm themes as well. 6-14-98 Name: Carol E-mail: apple@wantree.com.au Add to your dramatic play area: Baggy overalls, silly wigs, dad's old shoes, any silly hats, capes, tutus, red noses (made from egg carton pieces/elastic, painted red), headbands etc......if game....add facepaint and a mirror. Let them rip into 'em....and when all are dressed up....have a circus parade. Select the right music and it can be fabulous! 6-14-98 Name: Carol E-mail: apple@wantree.com.au ROOM SET-UP: I bought rolls of crepe paper in bright colours and we cut these into strips.....then attached them to a hoop which we hung from a centre point in the ceiling.....taking the ends out to the walls, where we attached them and let the extra length hang down.....really looked like a "Big Top" when we finished.......made a large circle using masking tape on the floor for the ring........and away we went....... "COME TO THE CIRCUS, THE CIRCUS IS IN TOWN!" If you can get hold of the song.....it is great to have it blaring out as the kids come in the door on the day you are introducing the theme.......sets the scene. 6-9-98 Make your dramatic play area into a circus. Add wigs, big red noses, top hats, over-sized shoes, funny hats, sequined vests, capes, headbands, hula hoops, stuffed circus animals, etc. Let the children explore!
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