Name of Activity: Counting Bells

Originating Idea: I thought it would be fun to incorporate the musical bells in the classroom and have
children count the number of times each bell is played.

Curriculum Area
Highlight 1:
Approaches to learning
Social and emotional development
Physical development and health
Language, literacy, and communication
Mathematics
Creative arts
Science and technology
Social studies

KDIs
32. Counting: Children count things.
Materials:
 Musical bells

Appropriate Age group: 3 to 5 years old

Beginning of Activity:
During our small group I will put all our musical bells onto the table to the children to play with. Once I am set
up I will ask the students to stop so I can begin. “Today we are going to be listening to our musical bells and
using our counting skills to count exactly how many times you heard each bell be played. I am going to be
hitting the bells and we will only start with one you will need to count then we can add more bells of different
colors and musical pitches.” I will play the bell a couple times and once I am done the children will say the
number of times, they counted the bell be played. I will add different colored bells for the children to watch and
count.

Middle of Activity
Children from different development levels might only be able to count and focus on one bell while
other students may be able to manage more than one bell.

Early: Children that are struggling with counting the bell sounds may receive help from a teacher who counts
out loud along with hitting the bell so the child can focus on both.
Middle: They should be able to count the bell sounds without a teacher counting out loud. They may use their
fingers to keep count of how many they heard from one or more bells.
Later: They will be challenged to count the number of bell sounds they heard from multiple bells of different
colors or pitches.

End of Activity:
“We were able to count the bell sounds from the musical bells in our small group. Some of us were able to
count the sounds from multiple bells and identify the number from certain colored or pitched bells. I am going
to put the musical bells in our music bin for us to make music with during our music and movement exercise.
We will all head to the carpet and I will put out our music bin for us to begin.”
Follow-up Ideas (2)
Students can use the musical bells to make their own songs or patterns with.
The bells can be used during a music and movement activity where they are playing the bells along with a
class song.