This winter I taught a course called Introduction to Group Work Practice. The students were in action all semester designing, participating in, and facilitating groups. The end of the course was also my last day with this wonderful cohort of Social Service Worker students I have had in my classes the last two years. I wanted to facilitate a closing activity that would be both a meaningful experience for the group itself, teach them about how to terminate a group, and give them a tool they can use in the future with their own groups.

I used a sand art activity based on Tibetan Sand Mandalas that was taught to me by Amie Kroes when I worked at the John Howard Society of Peterborough. We had worked with a group of 60 youth over 4 years in a program called the Quantum Program. We took them on a fantastic final field trip to Québec and were saying goodbye.

For the activity I ordered samples of coloured sand and a box of small glass bottles with corks. I also happened to have an old mirror at home with a frame so we used that as the base. In class each person chose a different colour and we all added our colour to the artwork while doing a go around to check out from the course and share what stood out for us or what we were grateful for. At the end we destroyed the artwork by messing it up (I had a sheet under to protect the floor) and then I put a little bit of sand in each bottle and distributed them. The bottles came with nice labels so many students ended up bringing them around and getting every other student to sign or put their initials on the label. This way each student leaves with a tangible memory of the class and closing exercise with each colour of sand in the bottle representing each other group member.

Overall I found the exercise very powerful and impactful and the students also seemed to really appreciate the experience and having something to take home as a memory of the course and program.