The Morning Circle is the first formal activity of the day in a Steiner kindergarten program. It is a sequence of verse and/or song accompanied by actions. The activity is led by the teacher and gestures are copied by the children. The same morning circle is repeated every day for 3 weeks and by the end of the 3 weeks most children will be able to recite the verse and complete all actions. The Morning Circle can be used daily in the home environment to bring attention to the start of the day or it can be used on an occasional basis to enrich home learning.

The topic of the Morning Circle changes with the seasons and should mirror the child’s outside world. It provides an opportunity for structured movement at the start of the day and the actions should allow the child to explore a range of fine and gross motor skills. Most morning circles consist of repeated choruses and multiple verses. The Morning Circle has many benefits for the child, including; providing a point of connection between parent (or teacher) and child, development of fine and gross motor skills, speech and language development, sensory development, as well as providing an opportunity to develop focus and attention.

Creating your own Morning Circle can be such a beautiful gift for your child. The verse can be made relevant to your outside environment and tailored to your child. If there are certain actions which they are still developing, or if you would like to focus on a particular area of their speech, then you can incorporate this into the Morning Circle. You can choose to feature parts of nature which your child experiences in their daily life and you can choose a topic which is meaningful to your child.

Here’s a short song and verse which I wrote to celebrate Autumn. It was one of my first attempts at writing a Morning Circle and exploring the pentatonic scale. The first two lines are sung and lines in italics can be spoken. We use simple hand gestures to accompany this verse, but you can add more complex actions depending on the age of your child.

My two-year-old loves this verse. He copies the actions as I say it and often walks around the house reciting it.

Do you run a Morning Circle in your home? Have you written any of your own? I’d love to know how you incorporate Morning Circle into your home learning.