Leaving Our Park Corner Nice

Before leaving, children slowly walk the area where they played with 'magnifying glass eyes' to gather their materials and check that everything is left the way it was. It helps them calm down, focus their eyes and care for their surroundings.

How to play

1. Sit in a circle and the teacher asks: 'What did we bring to the park?' and we name everything (1 min).
2. Make 'magnifying glasses' with your hands and walk the area very slowly, looking for our things: balls, hoops, scarves, water bottles (2 min).
3. Carry each thing you find on tiptoe to the teacher's basket (1 min).
4. Smooth out with your feet any sand or dirt we moved and put back the leaves and pinecones we used (1 min).
5. Wave goodbye to the park with a long breath: 'Bye, park, we'll be back!' (1 min).

Rules

• We only pick up our own things.
• If something on the ground isn't ours, we tell the teacher and don't touch it.
• We walk slowly, like detectives.

Variations

Adaptations

• Limited mobility: a child in a wheelchair holds the basket on their lap and classmates bring the materials over.
• Visual impairment: the child looks for big items or ones that make a sound (a ball with a bell), guided by a buddy.
• Autism: give them a picture checklist of what to collect.

Learning goals

• Calm down with a quiet task.
• Search for objects with focused looking in an open space.
• Care for the park and leave it as we found it.

Equipment for a class of 25

• Basket: 1

Teacher tip

Don't let children pick up other people's trash with their hands: if you spot something, an adult removes it with gloves. Count your materials before leaving school and again when packing up so nothing gets left behind.

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