In this work we study time-domain sound-soft scattering by small circles. Our goal is to derive an asymptotic model for this problem valid when the size of the particles tends to zero. We present a systematic approach to constructing such models, based on a well-chosen Galerkin discretization of a boundary integral equation. The convergence of the method is achieved by decreasing the asymptotic parameter rather than increasing the number of basis functions. For the case of circular obstacles, we prove the second-order convergence of the field error with respect to the particle size. Our findings are illustrated with numerical experiments.