Some Types of Closing Circles:
Affirmation Circle
Stand in a circle. Each person gets a chance to share something they have appreciated about the person to their right. Then the person to their left affirms. (In this way, people give an affirmation and then get an affirmation, so they’re not thinking of something to say while they’re getting an affirmation.) Give people a minute to think of something and then, starting with the facilitator, go completely around the circle.
Closing Word
Go around the circle with each person saying one word (or phrase) representing:
- something they learned today; or
- the attitude they hope to bring tomorrow; or
- something they appreciated about themselves that day; or
- a song that represents how they are feeling now; or
- some area of learning they hope to learn tomorrow.
Song (read more about Songs)
Close with a song you know and can easily teach. (Call and response songs—where the facilitator calls out a line and the participants respond with the same line—are great, since they take less time to learn and so people tend not to get into the “performance” of it as much.)
Postcard
Stand in a circle. Give a minute for everyone to think of a picture of a postcard to describe their learning for that day. Go around and share the picture that would be on their postcard.
Lifting the World Together
Stand in a circle. Announce: “I have terrible news. The sky has fallen down! It lies before us: there is the sun, and the moon, and there are the clouds. We need to carefully lift the sky in place. To do that, we need to lift it up from the ground all together – we cannot have pieces sliding off because we’re uneven.”
Demonstrate raising the sky from your knees, up above your head, to tossing it into the air. Explain that the sky sticks better when you yell: so as you toss it into the air you all need to yell really loud. (Be sensitive and adjust as appropriate for different physical abilities and height.)