Amy M. Burns

Elementary Music Technology and Integration

Amy M. Burns has taught PreK-grade 4 general music for over 25 years at Far Hills Country Day School (FH) (https://www.fhcds.org/). She also teaches grade 5 instrument class, directs the FH Philharmonic, is the Performing Arts Department Manager, and teaches privately in the after-school conservatory after being the director for over 20 years. She has authored four books and numerous articles on how to integrate tech into the elementary music classroom. She has presented many sessions on the topic, including four keynote addresses in TX, IN, St. Maarten, and AU. She is the recipient of the 2005 Technology in Music Education (TI:ME) Teacher of the Year, the 2016 New Jersey Music Educators Association (NJMEA) Master Music Teacher, the 2016 Governor’s Leader in Arts Education, and the 2017 NJ Nonpublic School Teacher of the Year Awards. Her most recent publication, Using Technology with Elementary Music Approaches (2020), published by Oxford University Press (OUP) is available from OUP and Amazon. Burns is also the Community Coordinator for Midnight Music (MMC) at https://midnightmusic.com/, the General Music Chair for NJMEA Board of Directors, and the Elementary Music Consultant for MusicFirst (https://www.musicfirst.com/), a company built by music educators for music educators, dedicated to helping music teachers and their students make the most of technology in the classroom.

Countdown to 2022: 5 Free Tech Activities for #Elmused (#4)

December 28, 2021  /  Amy M. Burns

Here in the Northeast of the States, the holiday started with an outbreak of the Omicron variant of Covid. This caused schools to pivot their current plans and weigh the options of remote learning, concurrent learning, or live learning with more restrictions. This week, to bring us into 2022, I am going to blog and share daily activities that can be used in your adapted #elmused classroom when returning from the holiday break.

#4: Chrome Music Lab Song Maker Activities

Having your elementary students create music with Chrome Music Lab’s Song Maker is a wonderful activity within itself. However, this google site I created levels up the activity all in one place.

#Elmused Song Maker Activities

This google site, https://sites.google.com/view/songmakeractivitiesforelmused/home, has four Song Maker Activities for older elementary students. However, they can be adapted for younger elementary students, as well as work in a 1:1 environment, concurrent, remote, or asynchronous teaching atmospheres.

https://sites.google.com/view/songmakeractivitiesforelmused/home

I Have a Little Snowman

With this activity, your students will learn the song, see it played on Song Maker, see a video of it being played with Song Maker and playxylo.com, and then create a percussion line to the song. This activity gives the students opportunities to create and perform music using virtual instruments.

https://sites.google.com/view/songmakeractivitiesforelmused/home

Doggie Doggie

In this activity, the students can look over the melody and perform two Song Maker projects. The first one is to complete the melody because it has missing notes. The second one is to add a drum line to the melody. Though students can copy the melody to be successful, I would encourage those students who are working on ear training to figure out the melody in the first project.

I also added the playxylo link so that the students can perform it with the F# that is in the melody.

https://sites.google.com/view/songmakeractivitiesforelmused/home

Teddy Bear

This project is similar to Doggie Doggie. I also added the playxylo link to this activity as well so that the students can perform it with the F# that is in the melody.

https://sites.google.com/view/songmakeractivitiesforelmused/teddy-bear

Dvorak’s Largo Melody from Symphony No 9, Second Movement

This activity focuses on the tempo. The students listen to the Song Maker file that contains the introduction and adapted melody. From there, they create their own simple melody with a tempo of largo and chords to accompany it. This is for older elementary and would be a part of the practice portion of prepare/present/practice approach where the students would be working on practicing how to create a simple melody with a guided tempo and chords.

https://sites.google.com/view/songmakeractivitiesforelmused/home

Check back as we count down to 2022 with #3 tomorrow!

categories / #elmusedtech, Free!, Grade 2, Grade 3, Grade 4, Grade 5, Grade 1
tags / #elmused tech, #edtech, #elementarymusicteacher, #elementarymusicteacherlife, #mused

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