A Tiny Symphony of Bells

Author: Sarah Smith

Serving at Mt. Zion Baptist Church has been a fun and exciting experience so far. For the last few weeks I have brought in hand bells for the kids to play and create music with. On the first day, I simply showed them to the students. They listened to the different bells and we talked about how some of the bells made high sounds and some of them made low sounds. I showed them what happened when I played more than one bell at the same time. Then I showed them that, using the bells, I could play songs that they already knew, so I played Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and Mary Had a Little Lamb.

In our next two lessons, as a class, we wrote our own songs. Each bell is a different color so I would call on one student at a time to tell me which color bell should be played next. Then I would write the pattern down on a big piece of paper that everyone could see. Each student would get their own bell and together we would play the song that we had written as a class.

I find this exercise really exciting because all of the students get to work together to create something and in order to execute the song they have written, they all have to be listening and paying attention to know when it is their turn to play their bell. Of course, it doesn't go perfectly in every lesson. I teach two different classes at Mt. Zion. One is a class of 3 and 4 year-olds and the other is a class of 4 and 5 year-olds. They all love the bells and want to play them but it is really difficult, sometimes, for them to sit patiently and wait for their turn to play their bell. And they're also only supposed to ring their bell one time when it's their turn, which is also hard because it is much more fun to ring your bell a lot of times in a row, really loudly.

But in every lesson, we practice paying attention, being patient, waiting for our turn, and ringing our bell only one time. This is a lot to ask from kids so young but I am confident that they can do it. My goal by the end of the semester is for my two classes to put on a little hand bell concert for each other and their teachers.