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.

Five Little Pumpkins - Song/Embellished Story/Play-Along

This past week, I researched Canva's AI tools and had it rewrite the song, Five Little Pumpkins, and turn it into a whimsical tale. It was amusing, to say the least. I had fun using Canva to illustrate and record that tale. Most of this video was produced in Canva, with the recording of the song done in Soundtrap, and the final edits to put the three videos together in Final Cut Pro.

0:00-1:00 Song (I recorded myself singing it very lightly in the background)

0:52-4:37 Whimsical Tale of Five Little Pumpkins

4:37-end - Steady Beat or Boomwhacker Play-Along Uses in the classroom:

This could be used in the following ways:

  • Video for a sub when you are out this month

  • Sing-along - Steady beat play-along

  • Boomwhacker play-along

  • Ask your students to create a story like this one about the 5 little pumpkins as a writing assignment

  • Reinforce reading in your classroom by having them read the video before singing the video I hope you and your students enjoy this one.

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