Desk Bell Set

 

Desk bells - Tap the bells to play the song

This is an 8-note, color, desk bell set. I have several different bell sets and was looking for something new and different when I found these. I call them "tap bells", because all you have to do is tap the top, like the old-fashioned desk bells, and the tone sounds. Here is the link for this bell set that I bought on Amazon. Click here.

The Amazon description states that these bells are the correct pitch, lightweight and durable. They move through an octave, from middle C (4) to C5. Lightweight, yes. Durable, time will tell. One thing that bothered me was that when I tapped the top sometimes the sound was not as clear as at other times. If you tap it firmly, OK. I thought $40+ was a little steep, but I splurged because I have several kids that can use these.

I am revisiting this post in 2023 and have found that the price is now $32. I bought several sets of there during the pandemic. Kids had their set of bells at home and I would show the music on Zoom. It worked well. 

The colored part of the bells is made of metal. There is also a metal spring inside, but the rest of the bell is plastic. The plastic part is what makes me wonder how long they will hold up. Here is a close up of the underside of the bell.

There is a small sticker on the top of each bell. Each sticker has a number, to tell you the order for setting up the bells, and a letter to tell you the note. The sticker on the top is hard to read because it is so small and some of them are very dark colors. Sitting right over the bells I had to strain to read the stickers. 

Update - The bells have held up good, but some of the stickers have fallen off and are not sticky enough to stay on any more.

Included are 11 cards with 21 songs. Songs will be quite recognizable to kids in the US, including London Bridge, Amazing Grace, Oh Suzanna, Yankee Doodle, Old McDonald's Farm, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. The notes on the cards will tell you what to play. Therefore, you do not need to be able to read notes to play these bells, just read each letter and tap the corresponding bell. Again, this is difficult because of the stickers as I described above.

 

Music cards are included.

BTW - you see A# in a couple of the circles on their music cards above, but there is only one A, and it is not sharp. There are a few times when a song needed more than 8 bells. If the bell went above C5, say it went to the next D, since you had no bell for it the song drops to the D that you do have a bell for. Then it jumps back. A little confusing to listen to for me, but it added more songs than you typically find in one octave bell sets.

What I ended up doing is making my own card for each song (see below) and instead of a circle with a letter I colored each circle with the bell color to use. It worked well.

Cards I made.

Get a free set of 23 cards I made myself by going to my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Click here.

Try this:

• Practice tapping the bells before you start so the individual can practice how to grade the pressure.
  
• Tap the bells before you start. Show how the sound goes up in one direction, and the sound goes down as you play toward the other end. This may help the individual predict which way to go as they recognize the music. It may help speed things up. If you play too slow, it will be hard to recognize the tune.
• Grab a metronome app for your phone to help the individual keep time. Stop using one if the individual is not capable of following it. That will just take the fun out of it. If the individual gets anxious when activities are timed or speed is pressed, you could start the beat slow and gradually speed it up. Or skip it altogether.
  
• Cover all lines on the music card except the line the individual is playing, if they have a hard time looking up and down without losing their place.
• Start with shorter songs and build up to longer songs to help keep interest and build endurance.
• Point to each bell, maybe with a pencil so you won't get in the way, in the order to play if the individual is not able to do it any other way. I found that most kids love making music and are pleased when they can do it themselves.
• Keep it fun.
  

 

 

77 Ways to Play Tenzi

77 Ways to Play Tenzi - Includes 77 cards and 77 challenges

TENZI just got a whole lot more fun! The original TENZI game is a dice game where every participant gets 10 dice and each player works quickly to roll all of his 10 dice to the same number. I don't own the game, but one of my families plays it regularly. I do believe that the original TENZI game also includes a few additional challenges.

77 Ways to Play TENZI is a box of 77 cards and 77 challenges, meant to be played with the dice from the original TENZI game. Challenges are all different and each challenge will take just a few minutes to play. You will have to be mentally flexible to jump from game to game and remember new rules with each new game. Rules aren't complicated, just different. 

If you have a TENZI game, you will have the dice you need to play the games in 77 Ways to Play TENZI. If you don't have a TENZI game, all you need is 10 dice per player to play these games (dice are not included with these challenge cards). If you are using your own dice, either have a different color dice for each player or have space between players when they throw their dice. You will be throwing handfuls of dice, and if everyone has white dice and they are all thrown on the table in a common area, you will not be able to pick which dice belongs to which player.

Each of the 77 cards in this box has a different challenge on it. In some of the challenges players take turns, but on most all players play at the same time, each player trying to be the first to meet the goal on the card. The first person to meet the challenge calls "TENZI" and wins that round. Ten of the cards say "not a speed game" at the top in red for easy sorting. Three games call for partners. Fourteen cards ask you to do something physical or unrelated to the game while throwing a TENZI, such as call out a state name after each roll, keep one eye closed and say "Arrrg" after each roll and roll a TENZI while standing on just one foot. If there are cards you don't want to use, just skip them or pull them from the deck before playing. After all, with 77 different cards, nobody will even notice if a few are missing.

Here is a sampling of the games from the box of 77:

• LEFTZI-RIGHTZI - Switch hands after each and every roll. Right, left, right, left, right, left...
• SEVENZI KEVINZI - Take two dice, roll a 7 (any combination). Repeat. And keep repeating. Be the first to have five pairs of 7's.
• CLAPZI - Clap after each and every roll.
• OFF HANDZI - If you're right handed, use only your left hand. If you're a lefty, use only your right hand. If you're ambidextrous, lucky you! 
• DOUBLE SPLITZI - Grab five of your dice and roll five of the same number. Once you do that, then roll your other five dice to get five more of a different number.
• BLINDFOLDZI - Choose partners. One person is blindfolded and their partner needs to talk them through rolling a TENZI.
• ODDZI & ENDZI - Roll a TENZI that includes any combination of only 1's, 3's, and 5's.
• THUMBZI - No thumbs allowed.
• BLANK CARDS - There are three blank cards to make up your own challenges.

The instructions also make these recommendations:

• Regular TENZI Game - Everyone plays at the same time and speed is everything. First one to meet a challenge yells "TENZI" and wins the round.
• Pattern Games (see image below) - Everyone plays quickly to create the nine dice pattern. After you create it, throw a six on your last die. Be the first to finish and yell "TENZI" to win the round. There are 14 pattern cards in the deck.
• Non-speed Games - Slow down. Players take turns throwing their dice. First one to complete a challenge is the winner.
• Keeping Score - Pick a certain number of rounds that you will play, say 10 or 20. After each challenge the winner takes the card. Person with the most cards after the appointed rounds is the winner. OR, suggest playing for 10 wins, playing games until someone accumulates 10 wins (cards). May take a lot more than 10 games to win 10 cards. 

There are 14 pattern cards in the pack.

Try this:

• Skip the game, just use the cards. Go through the deck ahead of time and pick out just the cards that you want to focus on and then work to meet the challenge without any competition.
• Place a ball in the player's hand if they have trouble cupping the hand. Ask them to cup their hand around the ball and then remove the ball. Add the dice to the cupped hand.
• Use both hands to shake the dice to begin with (one hand cupped over the top of the other), since 10 dice are a lot to hold at once. Then use only one hand for shaking as you shake fewer and fewer dice.
• Stack the cards you will be using. Carefully pick each card off the top of the deck as you play, trying not to topple the deck as you go.
• Use the pattern cards only. Pick up each die, one at a time, and turn it in-hand before placing on the table in the correct orientation. Create the whole pattern in this way.
• Put the game away by picking up the dice, one at a time, and squirreling them in the hand. How many can you hold? Put them away by the handfuls.

In the box: 77 game cards

 

If you are interested in purchasing this game, or just want more information, click on the image below.