4 Year Old Preschoolers Bell Choir

My first Christmas activity was directing a bell choir consisting of the 4 year old preschool class at my church's preschool. Having had some previous involvement with young children and bells, participation was limited to the 4 year olds.

Since I worked at the church from 2005 - 2010, I've had lots of experiences with the preschool, and I've missed being around the children. So this sounded like fun.  


Unhappy Sammy by red bells

Sammy with blue bell

We chose Jingle Bells and Away in a Manger as the songs to learn. Our first rehearsal was Thursday, November 30 with performance day 2 weeks away.



Bless the teachers who had a long talk with the kids explaining that the bells are musical instruments and not toys and that they should not complain about the color bell they are assigned.

First rehearsal went reasonably well -- all the little girls want purple and Sammy wants blue. Unfortunately neither song included a B -- the purple bell. They learned how to ring the bell and we even played Jingle Bells. At this point I think the Bell Choir will be a success if we can identify Jingle Bells or Away in a Manger at any point during the song.

Surprisingly, the boys are the best bell ringers and the girls seem more easily distracted. I learn the boys quickly but have difficulty keeping the girls straight -- all their names end in a "y" sound. With each practice the girls all want the purple bell. Neither song has a "B" which is the purple bell, but Away in a Manger has b flat which becomes our pseudo purple bell. In the children's bell world, A# is a blue bell; B flat and A# are actually the same note; there is not a separate bell for B flat. So I tied a purple ribbon around the blue A# bell. Still all the little girls wanted the purple bell. And Sammy wanted blue. I quickly learned that you had to give Sammy a blue bell if you wanted him to participate at all.


The first week of rehearsals went OK -- still hoping parents can at least identify some phrases of each song. As we moved into the week of the performance the songs sound great.  We learn though that kids, risers, and bells do not go together. Practice is called  when Sammy hits Mylie with a bell. We assign bells -- Lucy gets the pseudo purple bell and Sammy gets blue.

The bell choir debut performance is the opening of the preschool Christmas program on December 13. The 4 year olds all have speaking parts in the Christmas program where they become the main characters in the Nativity so they are all in costume as they ring their bells.

Their performance was great! You could more than identify the songs. I was so proud of them and it was fun!

We had an encore performance the following Tuesday at Morningside Assisted Living. They were just as great.


Next performance is scheduled for Valentine's Day -- Jesus Loves Me  and the first version I looked at has no purple bell!