Submitted by Monica Autry, Ft. Bragg, North Carolina

Idea posted September 19, 2003

I like to do some fun things when I line students up for dismissal... I use tickets. The tickets have either a rhythmic or melodic pattern on them. I use four different patterns to make the tickets. When I sing or play their pattern on the recorder, they are to hand me their ticket and line up.

I have several different sets of rhythm and melody tickets. Rhythm tickets start with simple patterns of ta and ti-ti and get progressively harder. Melody tickets start with sol and mi patterns and get progressively harder. I also have instrument tickets to use when we study families of instruments.

I made my tickets out of index cards. The students enjoy them and will promptly remind me that they need their ticket if I have forgotten to dismiss this way. This way, students are learning up to the very last minute.