Circus Shapes EFL ESL Lesson Plan | colorful circus fun!

Circus Shapes EFL ESL Lesson plan

Roll up, roll up! Welcome to the Circus! This is a fun filled Circus Shapes EFL ESL Lesson Plan. We’re going to visit the circus and learn all about shapes and clowns. We’ll sing and play games and make a colors and shapes collage of a circus clown. The lesson plan is suitable for preschool kids and will last about an hour. It’s easy and fun to teach and your class will enjoy themselves a lot. So grab your popcorn, we’re off to the circus to learn about shapes and meet the clowns.

For this Circus Shapes EFL ESL Lesson Plan, you will need:

  • Paper – both colored and plain white
  • glue and scissors
  • circus flashcards – make your own or use something like these
  • A picture of a clown
  • shapes – cut them out of colored paper or card

Songs and Videos:

Welcome to the Circus!

We’re going to start the lesson by singing a song. You can sing your usual Hello song or use one of my favorites here. As it’s a circus themed lesson though, I like to sing the Welcome to the Circus! song by LazyTown. I sing it without the music and just sing the first verse a couple of times with lots of actions. Before you start, draw some circus objects on the board or hang up some circus pictures so the kids have an idea what you’re singing about. Once you’ve sung the song, sit down in a circle and hand around the circus flashcard and talk about the different circus people.

Let’s look at shapes.

It’s time to learn the names of the different shapes. With your cut outs, drill the names of each shape. Make the shape with your hands or your body each time you say it and encourage the children to do the same. Then you can play a game. Put the kids in pairs and ask one of them to make the shape with their hands and ask their partner “What shape is it?”. Their partner has to reply, “It’s a square” etc. You could also do this as a Simon Says game if you prefer: “Simon says make a circle”. Take turns letting the kids give instructions.

Sing a song about shapes

When you’ve learned and practiced the names of the different shapes, you can sing the Shapes Circus song together. Make the shapes with your hands as you sing them. The video is very cute so if you want to watch it and sing with it after you’ve learned the song, that would be fun.

Meet the Clown

Now we’re going to meet our new friend, the Circus Clown. Draw or show some (non-scary!) pictures of clowns and talk about them. What color nose do they have? Are they happy? What do they do? Learn and sing the Circus Clown song and pretend to be clowns.

Let’s make a Clown with shapes

Time for some craft. Explain to your class that we’re going to make a clown out of the different shapes. Show them the cut out shapes again and see if they remember what each on is. Show them how you can use the shapes to make a clown. Use a big circle for his face and smaller circles for his eyes and nose. Use a triangle for a hat and smaller triangles to make a bow tie. Then use squares and rectangles to make a body. Glue them all onto a sheet of paper.

Give the children the colored paper, the scissors and the glue. If your class are very young, it might be easier to cut out the shapes before the class so they just have to stick them on the paper. Older kids can cut them out themselves. Once they’ve glued the shapes to make the clown, they can color it or decorate however they want. As they’re working, go around and check they know the names of the shapes they are using.

Read or watch a funny clown story

When you’ve all finished your collages, it’s time for a story. If you’ve got a favorite book about a clown, you can read that to the class. Otherwise, you can watch a video and talk about it together. The kids in my classes love Steve and Maggie so we’re going to watch Funny Clown Steve. As you’re watching, pause the video to talk about what the kids can see and what is happening. Can you see any shapes? What are the clowns doing?

It’s time to go home

If you’ve got time, sing the Shapes Circus song and the Clown Song again. Tidy up the classroom and get ready to go. Then finish with your normal Goodbye routine or use one of my favorites here. Give the children their pictures to show their parents and take home.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this Circus Shapes EFL ESL Lesson Plan. If you’ve got any ideas to add or to make it even better, please leave them in the comments. I’d love to hear if you’ve used it with your class and how it went. If you’re interested in seeing any of my other lesson plans, you can find them here. If you want to receive updates and new lesson plans, you can follow the GoogooEnglish Facebook page or sign up for email updates below.