Circle Time in a Waldorf-Inspired Co-op: Verse, Songs and Movement for Mixed Ages

Circle time in a Waldorf-inspired co-op is a short gathering at the start of the morning. Everyone stands in a ring. A parent lights a candle and says the same opening verse each week. Then come two or three songs of the season, a finger play for the little ones, a stepping or bean bag game, and a short closing verse. For ages 3 to 10 together, 10 to 20 minutes is plenty. One parent leads it for a whole block, and a child who won't join can sit beside an adult and watch.

Below is a sample circle you can copy, how to shape it for a wide age range, who leads, and what to do when a child stays on the edge. If circle is new to you, start with the Waldorf morning verse.

What do you do at Waldorf circle time?

Picture a Thursday in October in a living room with the furniture pushed back. A parent sings a gathering song, and the children leave the blocks and come to the rug. A candle is lit. Everyone says the opening verse together. Then a song about the wind, arms swaying overhead. A finger play about five little squirrels for the youngest. A rhyme stepped around the ring, stamping on the strong beat. Two bean bags passed hand to hand while everyone says a verse about apples. A closing verse, the candle blown out, and the group sits down for the story.

That's the whole of it. Circle combines singing, verses, movement and finger plays, usually pulled together around the season or the story the group is hearing. Jean Miller of Art of Homeschooling describes the pieces as rhythmic and involving the whole body. Young children take it in by copying. Blue Valley Waldorf School describes children taking in the songs, verses and movements of the morning circle by imitating the adults who lead them.

At a co-op, circle does one more job. It turns a room of families who arrived at different times, in different moods, into one group. Shining Star, a Waldorf-inspired co-op in Redmond, Washington, begins its co-op day with a morning circle and a story. Many small co-ops do the same.

A sample circle for a mixed-age co-op

This is written for about 10 children aged 3 to 10, in autumn. Change the songs to your season and your group.

Part	What happens	About
Gathering	A gathering song, sung until everyone is in the ring	1 min
Opening verse	Candle lit, the same verse every week	1 min
Seasonal songs	Two or three songs with big, simple gestures	4 min
Finger play	One for the youngest, older children join in	2 min
Movement	A rhyme stepped or clapped around the ring	3 min
Bean bags	Passing or tossing in time to a verse	3 min
Poem	A longer poem the older children are learning	2 min
Closing verse	Candle blown out, then to the story	1 min

The songs belong to the season and the festival coming up. Bringing Waldorf singing into your home has more on seasonal songs and why your own voice is enough. The stepping and bean bag games are in Waldorf movement and bean bag games.

How long should circle time be?

Waldorf-inspired teachers describe circles of anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes, depending on the ages of the children. For a co-op, the youngest child in the ring sets the length more than the oldest.

Rahima Baldwin Dancy of LifeWays North America wrote about changing circle for 12 children aged 1 to 5 with three adults. They made circle "shorter, simpler and livelier" than a kindergarten circle, and moved the story out of circle altogether. A co-op can do the same: keep circle to songs, verse and movement, and tell the story afterwards, sitting down.

A simple test: watch the little ones during the last song. If they're still with you, the length is right. If they've wandered off, cut a song next week.

Keep it the same for weeks

Circle works through repetition. The children learn the words and gestures by heart, and a child who only watched in week 1 may be singing along by week 3.

Lavender's Blue Homeschool suggests repeating the same circle for 3 to 4 weeks when you're starting out, and says a circle can run for a whole season. LifeWays goes further for the opening, the favorite game and the closing, and suggests keeping them the same "every day, year after year."

For a co-op that meets once a week, that means:

• All year: the gathering song, the opening verse and the closing verse.
• Each block of 3 to 4 weeks: the seasonal songs, the finger play, the movement rhyme and the bean bag verse.
• New pieces one at a time, so there's always more that's familiar than new.

Who leads circle time?

Give circle to one parent for a whole block. The children hear the same verse in the same voice, and the leader gets to know it well enough to stop reading from a card. How a teaching rotation works sets out how to pass circle and the other teaching jobs from block to block.

Every other adult in the room stands in the ring and joins in. Young children follow what the adults do, so it helps when every adult is in the ring. LifeWays describes its adults modeling every movement and placing themselves where a younger or unsettled child needs them. Before circle begins, agree where each adult will stand.

At the end of the block, the leader writes down the verses and songs, with the words and the gestures, and hands them on.

Circle for a wide range of ages

A co-op circle might hold a toddler on a lap and a 10-year-old who knows the verse cold. You don't need two circles. Choose pieces that work on more than one level.

The youngest, under about 4, can sit on an adult's lap and be moved through the gestures. LifeWays let younger children sit in adults' laps during circle.

Children of 4 to 6 carry most of the joining in. The finger plays, simple songs and stepping games are theirs.

Children of 7 to 9 can take the bean bag passing and clapping patterns, and a longer poem for the whole block. Choose a poem with a strong beat that the whole group can say together.

Jean Miller writes that children of about 9 or 10 are "pretty much done" with circle time. She suggests turning it into a warm-up with poetry or exercise. In a co-op, give them a real part. They can lead the verse, play a recorder for the gathering song or help a little one with the finger play.

If the older children are several and restless, let them do circle with everyone, then split off for their own lesson. Splitting the group for the story is often the next step.

What to do with a child who won't join

Nearly every co-op has one: a child who stands at the door, hides behind a parent or watches from the sofa. It's rarely a problem to solve.

Choose one of these and give it a few weeks.

1. A seat at the edge beside an adult. Let the child sit just outside the ring with a parent who isn't leading. The parent joins in the gestures from there. The child is still in the room, hearing the verse and watching the movement.
2. A lap inside the ring. For a young child, sitting on a parent's lap can be enough to stay in the circle without having to perform.
3. An adult between two children. When two children set each other off, LifeWays put an adult between them. It works better than a word in front of the group.
4. A shorter, livelier circle. For self-conscious children who act out, Jean Miller suggests stripping circle back to a candle and one song. Her own circles with young boys were short, with "lots of marching, clapping, and bean bags."

Whichever you choose, don't coax the child in, and don't talk about it in front of the others. A child who watches is often taking it in, and may sing the co-op songs at home long before joining in at co-op.

How to learn a circle as a parent

If you're leading circle for the first time, learn it at home the week before. Say the verses aloud while you cook, and sing the songs to your own children. Write the whole circle on a single card, with the first line of each piece and the gesture that goes with it. Keep the card in your pocket for the first week and try not to look at it by the third.

A good singing voice doesn't matter much. What helps is knowing the words well enough to look at the children instead of the card.

A circle plan to copy

Fill this in for each block and hand it to the next leader:

• Block and weeks:
• Leader:
• Gathering song:
• Opening verse:
• Seasonal songs (2 or 3):
• Finger play:
• Movement rhyme:
• Bean bag verse:
• Poem for the older children:
• Closing verse:
• Children who need an adult beside them:
• Notes for next time:

Circle is followed by the story. Storytelling for a mixed-age co-op covers telling it, and it's where most co-op mornings go next. If you're looking for a group to join, the Waldorf Map lists Waldorf-inspired co-ops and parent-and-child groups.

If your co-op wants a shared Waldorf-inspired program to plan circle around, running your co-op on Starpath is free. It lays out the blocks, stories, crafts and the festival year for the whole group.