What do you do when it’s time to line students up to leave the music room? How is lining up students to leave the music room part of your procedures and expectations? Every class time will look different and will change according to what you’re doing with your students and what grade level is leaving your room. But, the ideas I share in this blog post (and on episode 177 of The Elementary Music Teacher podcast) will help you to get your students lined up and ready to leave in an easier way.
Things to Allow Time For
When it comes to teaching your students, you’re going to want to allow time to wrap up the class time and to get ready to line up and leave. Sometimes, music teachers just think about what happens during the class time, but don’t think so much about having students enter and leave the music room too. So, there are a few things that you need to consider that will help you to wrap up class time successfully.
Here are the things to think through:
- Wrapping up the lesson
- Cleaning up the music room
- Setting up for the next class period
- Questions and answer time with your students
- Time to talk about non-musical things
- Exit tickets to assess for understanding
- Lining up students to leave
- Class rewards and announcements
What to Think About When Students Are in Line
Now that students are actually getting into line, there are things to think about. Don’t just assume that students automatically know how to get in line to leave. They’re going to need to know what your procedures and expectations are and for you to be consistent. Tell them what you want them to do with their voices and their hands.
Think about these questions:
- What do you want students to do with their voices?
- Where do they put their hands?
- Where should they stand when lining up?
- What will you do if a student runs to line up?
In podcast episode 177, I go into much more detail about each of these questions and give some strategies and ideas that might work well for you. But in this post, I do want to mention that while thinking through those questions, also consider the different grade levels and each unique class that you have as well. What works for one class won’t always work for another.
Know Your Schedule Well
Of course, you know your teaching schedule. You’re aware of what class comes into your music room and on what day they’re coming to you. But, with that said, have you looked over your schedule with a fine toothed comb? I’m talking about looking at what needs to be set up and torn down based on the grade level coming to you? Or also looking at who needs to be at lunch after your class?
While looking at your schedule, when you think about how much time you’ll need to wrap up the class period, you’ll need to know these things. If, for example, you’re needing to get 4th grade out of the music room to wash their hands for lunch, you might need to close out the class time a bit earlier than other classes. Maybe you have a particular class that takes longer to clean up than others. If so, jot that down and allow more time for this class. What about your most talkative class? Have you noted that on your schedule that you’ll need to allot more time to settle them down? These all go into what I mean by knowing your schedule well.
What to Do Before Lining Students Up
Class time is winding down and you have about 5-10 minutes left. What do you do with your students before lining them up to leave the music room? A calm story works really well. Yes, students of all ages still love listening to adults read to them, even your upper elementary aged kiddos. The book can be a read aloud or can even have a movement activity that goes along with it. Another great movement activity is for you to have students do stretches, quite movement to soft music, or even doing creative movement activities.
The next activity to do before lining students up is to ask them questions about what was learned. You might want to do popcorn questions or to have students to discuss what they learned in small groups. Quiet echo rhythms works well to calm students back down before they leave the music room. Students can take turns echoing rhythms after each other or even after you. Then, the last thing is you can have your star student help you line up the quietest students to line up or allow time for you to let that student know who they are before class time ends.
How to Have Students Leave
Instead of just saying something like, “ok class, line up,” I want to give you some strategies for how to have students leave the music room. You can call students up by their shirt color, their group number, the quietest row, the first letter of their name, or by doing popcorn questions. Or, you can tell students to line up differently each time. For example, you can call out different action words like tip toe, twirl, lunge, skip, hop, etc. and have students freeze like a music note when they get in line.
You can also sing to line up. When students mouths are doing something and they’re focused on music, they won’t be able to talk! Then, students can also do body percussion activities or echo rhythms while waiting for their teacher to come back to get them.
How do you have your students leave the music room? Tell me about it in the comments below or share your thoughts on social media as you share this post. I’d love for you to share this post or any of the resources on my website with a friend or colleague who you know NEEDS to see it too.
P.S. Are you feeling frustrated or stuck as an elementary music teacher? Check out these free resources to help you teach elementary music with confidence!
Also…I wrote a book called “Make A Note: What You Really Need To Know About Teaching Elementary Music” to help music teachers move forward in your teaching career. You can get your copy here.
