Prize Tickets & Stickers in Music Lessons

Recognizing Student Accomplishment - Stickers and Prize Tickets!

Here is an outline of our Stickers and Prize Tickets program. We encourage teachers and students to participate! (Some students will not want to participate, but don't assume older teens and adults will not want to participate just because they are older… They often do!)

Goals of the Program:

1. To encourage MEMORY of music.

2. To encourage SINGING of music on lyrics and on solfege.

3. To encourage students to attend Forum.

4. To help teachers develop positive relationships with their students.

5. To have a little FUN!

The bottom line: Students earn a sticker when they play a piece or song completely from memory for the first time. For this accomplishment, they earn ONE prize ticket. If a student also sings the song, they can earn ONE additional prize ticket for singing on the lyrics (if they exist) and ONE additional prize ticket for singing on the solfege. Some music books offer the solfege written in. Other times, teachers can work out the solfege with their students.

So, a student could earn THREE prize tickets for each piece or song. But to be fair, students need to do these things from memory and with quality performance. Teachers are encouraged to treat the in-lesson performance for prize tickets in a special way, including teaching things about performance practice and etiquette, etc.

Teachers will use the sticker, along with written notes on the page, to document that the prize has been won so that they can keep track.

NOTE: This is not intended to "pass pieces." Notice we say, "when they play it from memory for the first time"... This should mean that they add the song to their repertoire, not that they stop playing it! (I talk more about developing a repertoire of memorized music, and not "passing pieces" in other contexts, too.)

Stickers

Students are given a sheet of stickers as part of their welcome package in their tote bags. There are also sheets of various stickers in every lesson room. So it should be easy for teachers and students to locate stickers to use!

Prize Tickets

Prize tickets are located in small plastic colored bins in each lesson room. There are multiple denominations. Usually teachers will give a ONE ticket. Sometimes teachers can give a TWO or THREE ticket. Or if a student suddenly plays five songs from memory, their teacher could give a FIVE ticket, for example.

The studio also gives out Prize Tickets for other reasons, for example, to the student who wins the "Did You Read Your Newsletter Contest." A student might win TEN tickets, or such, in these cases. Teachers can give these out when the winning student brings in the newsletter and shows it to their teacher with their winning student name on it.

Music students should save their prize tickets and stockpile them. Inside a sleeve in their binder might be a good place, and/or in their tote bag.

Prize Redemption

Prize Tickets can be redeemed for actual prizes at weekly Forums. At present, this is the only way for students to redeem prize tickets. They cannot redeem prize tickets at lessons. They can earn them at lessons, but not redeem them. We may, from time to time, host other events where prize tickets can be redeemed.