Goodbye Circle: What Did I Play Today?

This is the exit ritual for the movement room: everyone puts the materials away, sits on the bench and says in one sentence what they played and how they felt, before putting on shoes and heading back to class. It closes the session calmly and helps children move from play to words.

How to play

1. To a soft drum beat, everyone puts away two things: blocks to the pile, fabrics to the box, mats against the wall (2 min).
2. We sit on the bench and take two deep breaths, like a balloon filling up and emptying (1 min).
3. We pass the drum hand to hand; whoever holds it says, “Today I played… and I felt…” (1 min).
4. The teacher wraps up with a sentence about what they saw: “Today the room was a town, a river and a jungle” (1 min).
5. We put on our shoes from the row, say “Bye-bye, room” and leave as a train (1 min).

Rules

• Whoever has the drum gets to talk.
• We listen to each friend without interrupting.
• You can say “Pass” if you don't want to talk today.

Variations

Adaptations

• Limited mobility: the child tidies the nearest materials and the bench is replaced by a circle of chairs.
• Autism: offer feeling cards (happy, tired, mad) to point to.
• Hearing loss: the teacher repeats each child's words with gestures and uses the same signs every session.

Learning goals

• Internalize an exit ritual that closes the play space.
• Put what they experienced and felt into words.
• Help care for and tidy the room.

Equipment for a class of 25

• Benches: 2
• Hand drum

Teacher tip

Always keep the same closing, just like the entry; the ritual gives them the security to let loose during play. With a big group, let half share in one session and the other half the next.

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