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Volunteering at Scouts is changing to help us reach more young people

Volunteering is changing to help us reach more young people

Volunteering is changing at Scouts. Read more

Discover what this means

Goodbye Squirrels

Why not finish your meeting with this reflection and goodbye song?
Plan a session with this activity

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You’ll need

  • Coloured pens or pencils
  • Scrap paper
  • Quiet games and puzzles (optional)

Closing a Squirrel meeting

  • Lots of people find it helpful to have structure and routines in their meetings, including having a set way to start and end a meeting. 
  • Having a quick activity you do at the end of every meeting, is a good way to bring everyone back together, and get them ready to go home.  It’s also a good chance for everyone to reflect on what they’ve done in the meeting.  
  • You may hear these sorts of activities called ‘closing ceremonies’ as they’re used to close (end) a meeting.
  • This is just one example of something you could do, but you can decide what works best for your group.

You might also find it useful to have something for people to do while they’re waiting to be collected.  This could simply be colouring in or drawing, simple puzzles, or table top games.  You could have these placed on the floor or at tables, so everyone can just get stuck in.

An example closing

Share and reflect

  1. Everyone should sit in a circle.
  2. The person leading the ceremony should go around the circle asking everyone to share something about the meeting. It could be something they have learned or that they enjoyed doing.

Some people may not be able to think of something to share, the person leading the ceremony should have prompts ready.

  1. Everyone can also share something that they have been impressed about, that someone else has done during the meeting. This could be trying really hard at the activity or being kind to someone.

This is a good chance to think about our Promise. Can anyone think of how they’ve done their best, or helped others today?

  1. The person leading the ceremony should encourage everyone to celebrate what has been accomplished in the meeting.

The goodbye song

  1. The group should sing the goodbye song below.
  2. Everyone should be encouraged to join in the song together and to wave to each of the people as their name is sung.

Adults and helpers may need to support everyone to be involved in the song. Everyone could sing it together, or the person leading the activity could sing the words first, for the rest of the group to repeat. This will depend on how well everyone knows the song and everyone's names.

This suggested song is to the tune of the first half of 'Goodbye campfire song' with the words changed to be:

Reflection

Closing ceremonies are a great chance for everyone to come together and think about what it means to be part of a Drey with friends.  How does it make everyone feel when everyone sings a goodbye to them? What does it feel like to be part of a group?

It’s also a good chance to reflect on their Promise – how have they done their best or helped others in the meeting? 

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

Plan an end to your meeting that everyone will enjoy and be able to be involved in. For some people, having actions with the song might help them join in.  Some people may not like noise, so think about noise levels in the activity.

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.