Circus

Part A: Watch Bluey

Step 1. Begin by watching the Bluey episode Circus.

You can watch this episode on ABC iView or through Enhance TV.

Circus synopsis: Bluey is the ringmaster in a game of circus with her friends, but Hercules wants to play his game instead. Luckily Bluey has a solution to keep everyone happy.

Step 2. Once the episode has finished, take a few minutes to talk about what children noticed in the episode.

Turn and Talk

It is important for children to discover themes and lessons from the episode for themselves. It is open to their interpretation, and they cannot be wrong in terms of what they felt or gathered from the episode.

Turn and talk is a fantastic way for children to share with each other. It is a very simple technique that creates a quick tool for reflection and sharing ideas with an inclusive approach.

After viewing the episode, ask the children to ‘turn and talk’ to the person sitting next to them. Quickly help the children recognise who their partner sitting next to them will be (some will have two people sitting either side so match them each to one person). Tell them that they are going to turn and talk to their partner about what they saw in the episode. You can focus the turn and talk to include: How did Bluey include everyone in the circus game?

As the children ‘turn and talk’ to each other, listen to their ideas and responses. Stop the ‘turn and talk’ by gently clapping and saying time to finish. Then summarise the ideas you heard by saying: ‘I heard …. say that …’.

You can also ask two to three children to share their ‘turn and talk’ with the class. Choose children that you don't often hear from. This is a great way for them to begin to share.

For more evidence-based advice on developing oral language in children click here.

You may need to probe further by asking:

I wonder what Bluey learnt from the circus game they played?
I wonder how Bingo felt when she spoke to Hercules?
I wonder how everyone felt playing together?

Part B: Playtime

The Importance Of Play

A play-based learning environment naturally encourages talking, listening and thinking. Play provides opportunities for children to learn as they discover, create, improvise and imagine. When children play with other children they create social groups, test out ideas, challenge each other’s thinking and build new understandings. Play provides a supportive environment where children can ask questions, solve problems and engage in critical thinking.

Play is also crucial to the development of children’s gross and fine motor skills. Through play, children practise and perfect control and coordination of large body movements, as well as small movements of hands and fingers. Gross motor skills involve control of the arms, legs, head and trunk. Fine motor skills involve the careful control of small muscles in the hands, feet, fingers and toes. Controlling the muscles of the tongue and lips in order to speak or sing is also a fine motor skill.

Play is vital to the development of children. Working in big groups can be a challenge for some. As educators, make sure to support the children as they play. Find out more here.

Set up -

Organise and collect different items that could be used in the circus performance. Items may include coloured fabric, hats, dress-up clothing, hula hoops, balls, or skipping ropes.
Decide on your space for your circus (either indoors or outdoors).

Step 1. Setting the scene

Setting the scene for the circus is very important; as the educator, you want to create an inclusive circus event. You can start this process by bringing the children together and posing the following questions:

Do you want to help make a circus, as we saw in Bluey?
If we are making a circus we might need some shared rules as we create the circus:
- What could be some rules that involve everyone and make it fair for everyone?
- Can you think of an idea?

Some ideas for shared rules might include:

Everyone is included
We share our things
We find a job that suits our own unique personality (ticket sellers/givers, popcorn makers/sellers, and performers are all important parts of the circus)
We can try something new
We can change roles (what would be a fair amount of time to be in one role?)

Write down a list of the shared ideas as the children offer them. These will form the basis of your group's circus rules. Once they are shared, make them official by announcing: "These are the rules of our circus. All people must follow these rules to make it fun and fair for everyone".

Quality Questions

When we are working with groups of children it is important that we ask good connected questions that support the focus of our learning.

When we are working on developing children's ability to think and share we need to make sure that we:
• Ask genuine questions that are clear and simple and focused
• Include real questions that you don’t know the answer to, so that you can
be an authentic part of the group in the questioning
• Find the answers in different ways. You could work with children to
brainstorm solutions. Look in books, bring in an expert or research ideas
using the internet
• Be mindful that the group is made of very different individuals and they all
have different skills in speaking. It is important that we recognise that we
often hear the same children's voices. This is wonderful for the courageous
child that is happy to share at every moment. But can be limiting for the
group if we always hear from these voices.

As educators we can focus on drawing out the quieter children, supporting and encouraging them to share their ideas and views when in a group setting. We can do this by gently focusing questions to the child to see if they have an idea to share, or asking their opinion on something that has already been shared.

For more evidence-based advice on developing oral language in children click here.

Step 2. Choose the circus acts and roles

Invite the children to share ideas about which roles they would like in the circus. Write these on the second piece of paper. Be sure to include an idea from everyone. These could include:

Performers and acts (such as jugglers, clowns, lion tamers, tight-rope walkers, or ringleader)
Musicians
Ticket seller
Food seller

Encourage the children to choose their circus roles from the shared list that is made. Be sure to focus on inclusion and help everyone be a part of the circus. Most circus acts will involve a team of people. Encourage the children to include as many others as they can in their groups.

As you do this ask: What if more than one person wants to do the role? How do we do this fairly? Can we change roles after time? Go back to the rules and see what was decided by the group.

Caring and Kindness

Authentically kind people are motivated by feelings of empathy. They can see things from another person's perspective and understand how they might be feeling. They can also recognise emotional signals in others, and know when and how to assist others.

Caring for others can range from putting your needs on hold to help others to being generous with time and thoughts in seeing to the needs of others. As early childhood educators, it is important that we assist in the development of kindness. Kindness is a complex emotion and a value that we can actively see and identify. When you see acts of kindness from the children, celebrate these moments. It's a great way to actively show how to care for others; it also grows an ethos of caring and kindness in your learning centre.

Step 3. Prepare the circus events

It is now time to start creating the circus. Encourage the circus performers to get started on practising their acts or organising their props. Set up the circus ring and organise the circus event. Your role is to move between the groups and look for children that are including others and helping to create a great circus act. Comment to the group on the positive things you are seeing and share these quickly so that others celebrate these positive inclusion ideas.

You could use lines such as the following to prompt children:

I like seeing (name/s)... and how they are working together on ….
I can see that (name/s) is helping (name/s) be a (role)...

Step 4. Bring it the circus to life

Call all of the children together to start the circus. Remember this is a time to shine: as the educator you want to encourage positive inclusive performances and celebrate everyone's achievements.

Gradually step away as children continue to run the experience of the circus themselves and further develop it. It is a fantastic time to watch for the social and emotional skills of inclusivity.

Part C: Possible Lines Of Development

Encourage students to create their own circus that may involve an event that parents and carers can view
Make your own Bluey circus ring, using different characters to perform in the circus acts.

Part D: Get Crafty!

Make some hats for your performers! Click here for instructions. You can find more crafty Bluey activities here.

Take It Further

Try another Bluey lesson. Check out all the Bluey lessons here.

Bluey 'Circus' - Inclusivity

Summary

Activity Guides and Printables

Activity Details

Curriculum Mapping

Resources Required