Once upon a time, I taught Children’s Choir at my church. One of the things I introduced to the choir was handbells. I was also teaching at a local preschool at the time, so I ordered these from our supply company there. This was one of the BEST purchases I have made – school/ child/ music related.

I have an 8 piece, color coded set of bells (made by FMT, in Japan) that is perfect for teaching children. Call me crazy, but today I pulled down our bells in the middle of a cold, napless day.

My 5, 4, and 2 year old then followed my finger commands, playing their bells as I pointed to them. We played the ABC song, our own little 1 to 10 counting song, and Jesus Loves Me – it was SO much fun! Baby boy, now 8 months, even enjoyed shaking his own little bell. Thankfully, none of our songs had his color bell!

When I taught at the church, I opted against buying the cards with the songs printed on them – I just made them myself! If you are familiar with music, you can do the same thing, saving lots of money. If you aren’t, maybe I’ll just be able to find time in the future to write out a few songs and make available here.

Basically, you make each card out of cardstock. I had 11 by 14 sheets that I cut widthwise. Each card would then hold one measure, or line, of the song. Draw circles out for each note in that measure, and then color them to match the colors on the handbells.

When you hold up the card, your children learn to read the colors, playing the bells that match the circles – thus playing a song by themselves! Crazy? Maybe, but we sure had a lot of fun!

Mrs. Candace

Candace @ Sonbeams.com