Create a big top tent in the classroom. Hang colorful streamers starting in the center of the ceiling, radiating outward toward the edges of the room.
Drape the classroom in bold shades of red, blue, yellow and green. Cover walls, bulletin boards and any other boring space with brightly colored paper.
Make a cardboard box circus train filled with stuffed animals to set the mood. Paint it in bold colors and add paper plate fake wheels. Cut away the sides of medium-sized cardboard box and glue dowels or straws vertically across the opening so they look like cages. Put stuffed animals in the cages.
Use balloons, clown and animal images or circus posters throughout the room to make it festive.
Provide children with a costume box in the imaginative play center. Look for any brightly colored or frilly clothes with accessories like funny ties, hats and clown wigs. Add some props, like a toy megaphone, hula hoops, juggling balls and jump ropes.
Set up your science center so that children can learn about air. Have lots of balloons and supplies available to show how bursts of air can disrupt confetti, make bubbles in a tank of water or propel a paper airplane.
Put out books about the circus, both fiction and nonfiction, in your reading center. Make circus puppets available for storytelling aids.
Set up a felt board for counting in the math center. Use circus animal images and have the animals ask the kids for help counting. For example, a monkey could need help counting felt bananas, an elephant with felt peanuts or a seal could need help with the balls he juggles on his nose.
Personalize a bulletin board with "headliner" acts using pictures of your students. Get a circus coloring book or print out coloring pages of circus characters like the strong man, ring master or trapeze artist. Color the bodies, cut them out and paste them on a bulletin board. Top each one with a photo of a student's head.