The Students are the Stars in a Colorful Circus Performance
The main ingredients of this program are creativity, teamwork and fun. The students are encouraged to come up with their own creative ways of utilizing traditional circus props. The students also play an integral role in the creation and choreography of the acts for the final performance.
School Community
A Circus Day Project is a wonderful community builder. Students get to collaborate with other students who are not their regular classmates, and adults other than their regular teachers.
Teachers get to interact with students other than their usual class and a large group of parent volunteers.
Volunteers have a chance to meet their children’s friends, parents and teachers.
New friends are made, and the benefits to the school community of creating something together will last far beyond the project day.
Add Custom Educational Messages
A Circus Day Project is highly customizable. If desired, educational messages can be incorporated at all stations. Select from our standard themes (nutrition, bullying, manners, etc.), mix and match, or provide your own messages.
Project Requirements:
This project requires the most cooperation from teachers and parents.
In addition to the teachers, enough parent volunteers are needed so that there are about 2 adults present for every 10 students.
The adults meet the evening before the Circus Day to get familiar with the equipment and the course of events on the following day.
We provide two instructors to run the project and all the show equipment, stage equipment, sound system, costumes and make-up.
Circus Day at School Project Outline
1. Leading up to the show
The school assigns an advance person to coordinate the recruitment of volunteers and to supply us with student lists, volunteers and faculty lists, school maps, lunch schedules and other information.
We have some great tools available on line to help the advance person. At the click of a button you can create letters to send home with the students, posters to hang up in the school and a press release to publicize the event.
go directly to the advance person tools.
There are 22 adult volunteers needed to run every circuit.
Each circuit can accomodate 100 – 120 students.
We split the students up into multi-age groups and ask the school to suggest any changes to the groups that may help make things run as smoothly as possible. Volunteers can be entered directly into our online database.
The whole school typically prepares for the project weeks in advance by incorporating a circus theme in reading, history, social studies etc., and by decorating the school with circus artwork.
go directly to our links to circus related curriculum resources.
2. The evening before the show
On the evening before the project day there is an instruction meeting for all adults.
Parents and teachers get an overview of the day and detailed instructions through an entertaining demonstration of the different skills. They also have a chance to get familiar with the equipment.
At the end of the meeting the volunteers can select their preferred task for the next day, or be assigned a random one.
At this orientation meeting we offer our popular Straw Boss shirts for $10.00.
3 Morning
We provide name tags for every student and adult volunteer. We also provide every adult with a task sheet outlining their day.
The students start out in their class rooms where attendance is taken and name badges are handed out. They then spend the morning going through a circuit of ten different circus skills in small multi-age groups, receiving about 10 minutes of hands-on instruction at each station.
Students are encouraged to come up with creative ways of utilizing the props at each station.
Every group has an adult leader who stays with the group the entire morning, guiding them from station to station and assisting in the instruction.
Every station has an adult station boss who gives instruction and oversees safety at his/her station.
The circuit stations can be set up in classrooms, hallways, gymnasium and outside.
Every student and adult can be instantly located through the computer we set up for the office personnel.
4. Afternoon
After lunch each student selects one of the ten skills to perform in the show. The students’ name tags get scanned and we produce a program for the show with pictures taken during the day, listing the acts and the students in them.
Kindergarten Students
Kindergarten students become actors in animal acts. After lunch they return to their classrooms, get some rest, and rehearse their acts.
Building Acts
The students spend the next 90 minutes rehearsing and writing a 3 minute act for the big show in groups of about 12 supervised by a station boss.
The acts are built with student input and cooperation.
Wardrobe & Makeup
During this time the students also get dressed and made up for the performance, assisted by the group leaders.
5. The performance
The hour long show usually takes place in the schoolyard.
The show consists of the 3 minute acts the students put together and is presented by student ringmasters.The format can be a 1, 2, or 3 ring circus, depending on the total number of students.
If the weather doesn’t permit an outdoor show, the show plays indoors and may be spread out over different areas, depending on available space.
Family and friends are welcome to come see the show and surely will be talking about it for a long time. If the shows are split up over different locations we produce lookup lists so that visitors can find their children’s performing locations.
>>> See the list of frequently asked questions for more information >>>
Frequently Asked Questions
Some of the very same equipment we use in our projects is for sale at Semcycle.com
There is a bathroom break / refreshment station built into the morning circuit. Some schools set up drinks and snacks here, others just have the students go to the drinking fountains.
No. The more the merrier. We are set up to assign extra volunteers to double up on the most strenuous positions.
The project really depends on the volunteers. Having enough volunteers who attend the orientation meeting and show up on time on the project day makes all the difference.
That’s totally up to you. In our experience, we have seen more parents who afterwards wish they had not. A good number of parents who have requested to be in a group with their child specifically request to lead a group without their child in a subsequent project.
At the orientation meeting we can accommodate most special requests, within reason. We have students lists available so you can find out which group number your child is in, and you can let us know which group you’d like to (or not like to) lead.
Schools can integrate Circus themes in the curriculum and decorate the school with circus art. Here are some suggestions on curriculum resources.
This is left up to the school. Some schools invite all kindergarten students to stay the entire day. Others let the AM students go through the circuits and let the PM students be the animal acts in the show.
Kindergarten students have a blast going through the circuit in the morning and trying new toys every few minutes. They do get pretty tired from the morning activities and after lunch they get to rest and some even take a nap before they rehearse their animal or clown acts.
Everyone participates to the best of their ability. Individual adjustments are made so that all students are fully involved.
Where activities are easier for larger students smaller ones are more encouraged to try as they see it can be done, and vice versa. A group of 5th graders may never even try to ride on a miniature bicycle until they see a second grader do it. Older students help out the younger ones and assist in keeping the group together. Many find this extra responsibility rewarding. Finally, some of the stations just naturally work better with students of various sizes.
Dress as they would for gym class. Gym shoes are recommended and must be worn for unicycling and tightwire. Their performing outfits will be worn over their clothes.
Yes – but only in assisting the student stars during their performance.
Nothing but common sense. Detailed instructions are given beforehand, and help is available at any time during the program.
Typically we have 2 project managers for projects of up to 300 students, 3 for projects of up to 500 students, 4 for projects of up to 700 students, etc.
While the equipment may be hazardous if used unsupervised, we feel the project is no more dangerous than any other physical activity. There are 2 adults supervising every 10 students at all times plus 2 additional safety inspectors roaming around the entire project. All adult helpers receive detailed safety instructions on the day before the project
Pricing
Base Price: $1600
The base price includes one circuit – capable of handling 100 students (10 instruction stations with 10 students each).
Extra Circuits: $800 each
One extra circuit is required for every 100 additional students.
A circuit can handle more than 100 students, but the resulting larger groups at each station decrease the hands-on time per student.
The base price includes a 2 hr instruction session for the adult volunteers the evening before the program.
If the teachers are unable to attend the evening session an additional one hour afternoon instruction session for the teachers can be added for $150.
Travel & Lodging
The base price includes travel inside a 50 mile radius from Livonia, MI.
Projects at a distance greater than 50 miles will incur travel & lodging charges at $1 per mile driving distance over 100 miles roundtrip, and one night lodging for the project managers at $150 per manager.
The number of project managers on a project is:
2 project managers for the first 3 circuits
1 additional project manager for every 2 additional circuits
Remember – You also need 22 adult volunteers to run each circuit.
