Circus Crafts, Activities, Games, and Printables

Free Circus Crafts, Activities, Rhymes, Printables, and Circus Books

Welcome to the Circus! (Activity and printables available inside our KidsSoup Resource Library)
Look at a circus poster or circus book together. Ask children if they have ever visited a circus. Discuss with children the circus performances they have watched. What did they enjoy? What did they not like or were afraid off? Explain the words "perform" and "entertain" and discuss that different circus performers entertain the audience in the circus.

Preschool Activities: 

Media Root

Let's All Go to the Circus Today 
Original Author Unknown 
(Tune: Mary Had a Little Lamb)

Let's all go to the circus today,
circus today, circus today,
Let's all go to the circus today,
and watch the animals play.

See the tigers jump through the hoops,
through the hoops, through the hoops,
See the tigers jump through the hoops,
at the circus today.

See the big seals spinning balls,
spinning balls, spinning balls,
See the seals spinning balls,
at the circus today.

See the little dogs jump and twirl,
jump and twirl, jump and twirl,
See the little dogs jump and twirl, at the circus today.

See the elephants standing up,
standing up, standing up,
See the elephants standing up,
at the circus today.

Clown Movement Rhyme and Activity (Gross Motor Skills) (Activity and printables available inside our KidsSoup Resource Library)

Look at the clown pictures together with children and let them describe the different clowns. What is the clown wearing? What color is his/her hair, hat, etc?

Preschool Activities: 

Media Root

Let children color a clown face. Recite the following rhyme and make the movement together:

I'm a Little Clown
by Jolanda Garcia KidsSoup, Inc.

I'm a little clown. Look at my hat.
I have a big belly and I walk like that.

With my big shoes and my red nose,
I fall down and make a funny pose.

Watch me jump up and bow,
I hope you enjoyed the show!

Free Circus and Clown Tracing and Coloring Pages

Clown Face Drawing	Clown Nose Coloring Page	Clown Juggling Coloring Page	Circus Animals Coloring Page

At the Circus - In your Classroom

Provide children with a range of items for recreating circus acts, such as stilts for stilt walking, a beam to balance on or to walk the tightrope, and balls for juggling. Outline a "Circus" ring, indoors or outdoors, and have fun performing together, dancing, doing tricks, or clowning around.

In your housekeeping area, create a circus clown dressing room. Display a range of clown costumes including hats, shoes, and bags. Don't forget to provide a mirror for the children to see themselves dressed up in their clown costumes!

Amazing Acrobats

Use a rope or masking tape on a carpet as a tightrope and take turns with your child to balance along it. Walk forward, backwards, balance on one leg, etc.

Let children balance paper cups, balls, etc., while standing or walking on the rope.

Outdoors Stretch a long piece of rope across the ground or grass and secure it at both ends (rope should stay on the ground; this is just for pretend ;-). Let children pretend to walk a tightrope by walking on the rope that is on the ground. Show children how to walk like a tightrope walker by placing one foot in front of the other along the rope. Encourage children to try to keep their balance and stay as much as possible on the rope.

Circus Animals (Activity and printables available inside our KidsSoup Resource Library)

Preschool Activities: 

Media Root

Look at Circus Animal Picture Cards. Ask children to tell you the name of each animal and describe something it might do in the circus. Write the word for each animal next to its picture. Say each letter as it is written on the chart paper.

Together, make the sound of each animal as the animal is introduced. Then, let children pretend to be the animal performing in the ring.

Prancing horses stepping around the ring
Elephants walking around the circle swinging their trunks from the left to the right
Lions and tigers jumping through hoops
Dogs dancing
Bears juggling
Monkeys running around the circle
Seals juggling a ball on their noses

My Circus Animals Book Writing and Drawing Activity (Activity and printables available inside our KidsSoup Resource Library)

Preschool Activities: 

Media Root

Tell children that they each get to make their own Circus Animals mini-booklet. Use a completed booklet as an example to introduce the pages with the words for each animal. Explain that children will write the word for each animal and draw a picture of that animal in the circus for each page. Remind them that they can use the pictures and words on the chart paper for reference. (Variation: Let children cut out the pictures and glue to the pages.)

Clown Face Snack:

What you need:
Paper plates
Grated cheese
Cherry tomato halves
Shredded or sliced carrots
Cucumber slices
Banana cut in half lengtwise

What you do:
Give each child a paper plate. Ask them to make clown faces using the different food items. Have them add shredded carrots or the grated cheese to the tops for hair.

Circus Books

You See a Circus, I See...	If I Ran the Circus	See the Circus	Circus
Olivia Saves the Circus	Harold's Circus	Big-Top Benn	ABC is for Circus
Miss Bindergarten Plans a Circus	Peter Spier's Circus	A Day at the Circus	Circus Train