Make puzzles for the preschoolers to do using cardboard or cardstock, glue, circus coloring pages and scissors. Glue a coloring page to a piece of cardboard or cardstock and use the scissors to cut it into puzzle pieces. Cut the picture into four to six pieces and put them in a zipper plastic bag. Give each preschooler a plastic bag of pieces and let them try to put the puzzle together. Once they put the puzzle together, they can color the picture.
Draw or print several circus-themed items on index cards and make sure there are two of each item. You can include items, such as cotton candy, lions, elephants, a corny dog, clowns and a circus tent. Show the preschoolers the pictures and mix them up. Place them face down on a table and allow one person at a time to look at two cards. Every time a child finds a pair, he keeps that pair. Each child will get only one turn, unless he finds a pair and he can go again. The child with the most pairs at the end of the game wins.
Hang several pieces of red and orange streamer from several hula-hoops. Hold the hula-hoops about six inches off the ground and let the preschoolers jump through the flaming hoops. For added decoration, help each child make an animal mask using construction paper and a piece of elastic string to wear while she is jumping through the hoops.
You can draw a large clown on a poster board or print one. Print several large red clown noses and write each child's name on a nose. Blindfold each child and spin him three times. Tell him to try to pin the nose on the clown. The child who pins the nose closest to the correct spot on the clown wins the game. Award prizes like circus stickers, small plush circus animals or in this case, the perfect prize would be a red clown nose to wear.