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.

"Be Thankful" Body Percussion Play-Along Video

November 17, 2024  /  Amy M. Burns

A couple of weeks ago, I highlighted the rhythm play-along I created a few years back involving the theme of being thankful. I then followed it up with a body percussion play-along activity. The meters and some of the rhythms combined with the tempos can make this challenging. Try it yourself before using it with your class.

Teaching Tips

When I use play-alongs in music class, I begin by having the students read and perform the various patterns found in the song. Once they have, they use body percussion to perform with the play-along.

During the next class, I use wheelofnames.com to call on a student to perform one of the patterns in the song. This serves as an early performance assessment. The students use rhythm sticks this time when performing the song.

In the third class, I have students individually perform and read the pattern. I use this as an assessment to see if they are comprehending how to read and perform the pattern. We then find instruments in the class that are percussion, but not the standard rhythm sticks. We aim to balance the ensemble with some drums, bells, sand blocks, etc, so the students perform together along with the play-along activity.

Body Percussion

I will give the play-along activity a break and then come back to it with the body percussion play-along video. This is a good, quick activity to get my elementary students moving or to end the class when wanting to fill the final minutes of class. I will ask if the students figured out what body movements represented the note values in the rhythm play-along video.

If your students cannot snap, remind them that they can "flick" their fingers into the air.

Copy of the Body Percussion Play-Along Manipulatives

If you would like a copy of the body percussion play-along manipulatives, please check out my Buy Me a Coffee page.

Coming Soon!

categories / Kindergarten, Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3, Grade 4, Grade 5, Play-Along Videos, Preschool
tags / #elmused, #elementarymusicteacher, #free, #edtech, #elementarymusicteacherlife, #elmused tech

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