Circus: Day One

The Circus is Coming to Town!

Objective: Students will be introduced to some of the animals and acts in a circus.

Introduce the concept of a circus by reading some circus books, such as:
If I Ran the Circus by Dr. Seuss
Put Me in the Zoo by Robert Lopshire
See the Circus by H. A. Rey

Make a mini-circus book with your child:
click here for the printable book

Song:

Let's All Go to the Circus Today (tune: Mary had a little lamb)

Let's all go to the circus today, The circus today, the circus today.

Let's all go to the circus today, And watch the big parade.

Lions and tigers jump through hoops, Jump through hoops, jump through hoops.

Lions and Tigers jump through hoops, In their circus cage.

The prancing horses step so high, Step so high, step so high.

The prancing horses step so high, In the circus ring.

See the clowns all tumbling, Tumbling, tumbling.

See the clowns all tumbling, In the circus ring.

Did You Ever See a Circus?(Tune: Did You Ever See a Lassie?) Did you ever see a Strong Man, a Strong Man, a Strong ManDid you ever see a Strong Man go this way and thatGo this way and that way, and that way and this way,Did you ever see a Strong Man go this way and that?
There's no big secret to this as it's done just like the Lassie song. One child comes to the center of the group and performs the actions of a Strong Man (pretend to lift weights). Allow the children to choose the focus of each verse (did you ever see dancing bear......, did you ever see an elephant......, did you ever see tightrope walker......, etc).

Art activities:

• Circus Coloring Pages
• Make a circus train: have child color on construction paper. Cover shoe boxes with the decorated paper. Tie shoe boxes together with string. Put toy animals or animal pictures inside the train and let child pull around the room.
  

Extra:
Let children watch Disney's Dumbo, talking about how the circus comes into town, the animals are on the train, and the workers put up the tent.