CM Club Ideas for short calming activities before home - time

[jazee]

Hi there, Has anyone got some great activities prior to children going home. Have a child who gets a little unsettled and want to make the transition easier for all involved. Thinking of short activities which wont interfer with collection. Hope that makes sense.
My own thougths are looking at books together, play doh, playing catch. Something that can be stopped abruptly because there's a knock at the door and they have to go home.

lego?

not a CM (yet) but how about playing soft, calming background music whilst tidying up?

Pinkmarshmallow, I really like that idea. Will def try
The lego sounds good. but what if they are engrossed in making a model ,then have to leave it behind.
Finding it quite hard to come up with things, but thanks for the ideas.

then you say, brilliant, now you have somehting to come back and finish tomorrow i CANNOT wwait to see hwta it is, ill make sure its safe for you. BYE

jazee, i think you may find the same problem the playdough - if the children are very engrossed they may be loathe to leave what they are doing.

I just tend to say OY! TIME TO GO!!!

i give them 15 min ten min and 5 min warnings too

it can be hard if the pick up time varies, but we have a tidy time, followed by snack (milk / juice, fruit / biscuit) then story time or circle time / show and tell depending on ages of children.

Story tapes are good for tidy time and snack time or we have lots of classical stuff that the LO's like as well.

How about jigsaw that you can store in the same shape as they left it (with one of those mats that you can roll with the jigsaw inside it) and pick up in the same place next day.