END THE DAY FEELING GOOD. Who wouldn’t be behind that? Sometimes at the end of my school day, there was either a whole class of my students feeling drained and frustrated or one or two students just defeated. Whether from behavioral struggles, peer conflicts, academic frustrations – it’s hard to watch kids leave school for the day feeling upset. Insert closing circle.
So you asked and here I am delivering: frequently asked questions about closing circle! Here we go.
What is closing circle?
It’s the flipside to morning meeting, but a lot more brief and concise. Closing circle is a quick time to reflect, connect, and go over any home expectations (ex: homework, bring your water bottle, don’t forget your permission slip!).
What’s the purpose?
Closing circle allows students to leave feeling good. Teachers and staff, too! We know that children thrive with routine. Having a consistent, meaningful way that school ends every single day can be comforting and grounding for our students. Even if the day was a struggle, this will allow students to leave with a sense of peace and purpose every single day.
How do you make time for closing circle?
When I implemented closing circle in my classroom, I used my typical routine of setting a timer. If I didn’t have timers going off throughout the day, my students would have been late for PE, lunch, art, social work appointments… literally everything. It’s so easy to get carried away! Closing circle needs to be about 8-10 minutes. This is not much of a sacrifice when you think of what you are gaining!
What are some activities you use?
For my daily routine, I always followed the layout from Responsive Classroom. Closing circle started with reflection, where we reflected on highs and lows, something to work on tomorrow, one thing we learned that day, or another simple reflective question. We then moved into celebration! We celebrated something new we learned, a goal we reached, and focused on a positive. Last, we had a closing routine. This changed every year depending on what my class vibe was like. Some years we had chants, some years we said a school or class motto, some classes I played a class song we had voted on as they got their belongings ready to leave.
At the end of the day, no matter how angsty we’re feeling about the shenanigans that may have occurred, deep in our teacher hearts we DO want our students ALL leaving feeling good.
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