If you walk into an elementary classroom, you might notice that everything is color-coded: signs and charts on the wall to labels on bins to pieces of tape marking certain spots on the floor.

This is because colors are easy for most young children to recognize and differentiate between.

But in music, our baseline is black and white, the colors of standard notation. When first introducing music-reading, it can be challenging for young students to recognize patterns and organize the content visually when everything is black and white.

For this reason, color can be a helpful tool when teaching music literacy and developing music-reading skills. “When we use color in a systematic way it can help students retain information better than just using black and white.” (source)

Looking for a fun way to reinforce rhythm and steady beat, play melodies, and introduce harmony to your children’s choir?

Let me introduce you to Boomwhackers.

Boomwhackers are great for older elementary choirs, though they can be used in certain circumstances with younger elementary choirs.

Here are a few ways you can use them in your rehearsals:

While writing last week's post on how to start a children's handbell choir, I came across a number of practical, helpful videos on YouTube. These videos show real children of all ages in real churches playing (colored) handbells in worship and at special church events. In addition to being completely adorable, I found them to be incredibly inspiring and motivating. And did I mention, helpful?

Here's why:

The brain processes visual images 60,000 times faster than text (source). In addition, more than 65% of us are visual learners (source). But that's just images. Researchers estimate that one minute of video is worth 1.8 million words (source). Crazy, right?

So, today, I thought I'd supplement my last post by sharing a collection of videos that show the ins and outs of children's handbell choirs. Click through the slides below to get started. Enjoy!