It doesn't take the kids in the C chord group very long to feel that they were cheated because they only get to play once. So after the kids have got the gist of how this is done you can let them move to a new chord group. I do this by having the child first stand up and take their mallet and and chime and set them both on their chair.
Then they all move to a new seat in the room. I always give them a set time to get ready to play again. I may count backwards from 10 or just watch the clock and count seconds. It helps to give some structure to the moving. We will do this several times so they will get ample chance to play different chords. Once moved I will say "Everyone in the G chord raise their hands. Don't forget you follow my right hand." etc for all three groups. It obviously won't work if they don't know which chord they are playing.
Once the children know how to play the bells and sing the song at the same time, they are ready to add a special ending. I have the piano play the ending as the chimes join in. On the individual chimes I taped numbers that showed if they played on the ending. I had all chimes with that letter name play no matter which octave they represented.
You can see that the C&E chimes needed both 1 and 2.
G needs 1,2,and 3.
B gets 1 and 3.
A only plays on 2.
D only plays on 3.
We love the ending. I direct it by having my raised hand flick out one finger on the 1 chord, two fingers on the 2 chord, and three fingers on the 3 chord. It takes a while to get everyone to play at the same time. So just practice until they have it. My kids respond well to real musical challenges. This is so beautiful when it is done right they feel very proud of themselves!
We sang this in sacrament meeting last year and I had a select group of children play the bells.
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