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.

Looking for my YouTube Channel, or the manipulatives for my Play-Along Videos, click on the social feed buttons below!

Filtering by Category: Boomwhackers

Long-Legged Sailor Play-Along (Boomwhackers, Percussion, and Recorder) and Manipulatives

August 10, 2025  /  Amy M. Burns

This is the fourth installment of my summer project of creating play-along videos of songs and concepts found in the Kodály and Orff Schulwerk approaches. This week, I feature the Long-Legged Sailor Play-Along (Boomwhackers, Percussion, and Recorder) video. Like my resources? Please consider buying me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech

Each video (found on my YouTube page) will be accompanied by lesson manipulatives.

Here are the resources and manipulatives:

Blog: http://amymburns.com/elmusedtech/2022/7/16/lls or https://buymeacoffee.com

All of the parts and the video are included in the manipulatives found here at https://buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech/extras

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categories / #elmusedtech, Assessment, Google Slides, Grade 3, Grade 4, Grade 5, Play-Along Videos, Recorder, Boomwhackers
tags / #elmused, #elementarymusicteacher, #free, #edtech, #elementarymusicteacherlife, #elmused tech, #mused

🎷 Jazz Up Your Classroom with This Free “In the Mood” Play-Along for Jazz Appreciation Month!

April 21, 2025  /  Amy M. Burns

This play-along is challenging! The tempo is quick, there are a lot of chromatic notes, the rhythm has a lot of playing on the offbeats, and the play-along encourages one to look ahead when performing it. I would highly suggest slowing down the tempo on YouTube by clicking on the settings, choosing the “Playback speed” and slowing it down to 0.75 or 0.50.” Or use the “Transpose ▲▼ pitch ▹ speed ▹ loop for videos” Chrome extension that will allow you to change the pitch and key of most YouTube videos. In addition, I would use the screenshots/file found here in the blog post so that your students can practice this before trying it with the video.

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categories / Boomwhackers, #edtech, Elementary, High School, Grade 5, Grade 4, Middle School, Play-Along Videos, YouTube, Jazz
tags / #middleschool, #elementarymusicteacherlife, #jazzappreciationmonth, #boomwhackers, #playalong

#techtiptuesday Using Canva's Magic (AI) Tools for Five Little Pumpkins - Song/Embellished Story/Play-Along

October 15, 2024  /  Amy M. Burns

In the past, 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.

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categories / #elmusedtech, Boomwhackers, Elementary, Kindergarten, Play-Along Videos, Preschool, YouTube
tags / #elmused, #elementarymusicteacher, #edtech, #kindergarten, #playalong, #preschool, #elementarymusicteacherlife, #elementary, #elmused tech

Being Thankful/Giving Thanks/Thanksgiving Music Activities

November 20, 2022  /  Amy M. Burns

Need musical activities for early childhood and elementary classes for this shortened week? Take a look at the Being Thankful/Giving Thanks/Thanksgiving Music Activities Wakelet (https://wakelet.com/wake/zeVd8qvk_TuEbRCXzbL4I) and read the blog to see some of the highlights from the Wakelet!

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categories / #elmusedtech, Boomwhackers, Elementary, Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3, Grade 4, Grade 5, Kindergarten, Play-Along Videos, Preschool, Ukulele, Orff
tags / #elmused, #elementarymusicteacher, #Wakelet, #elementarymusicteacherlife, #elementary

We Are Dancing In The Forest Kodály and Orff Schulwerk Inspired Play-Along (Boomwhackers, Percussion, Recorder, and Ukulele) and Manipulatives

July 24, 2022  /  Amy M. Burns

This is the fifth installment of my summer project of creating play-along videos of songs and concepts found in the Kodály and Orff Schulwerk approaches. This week, I feature We Are Dancing In The Forest Play-Along (Boomwhackers, Percussion, and Recorder) video.

Each video (found on my YouTube page) will be accompanied by lesson manipulatives. The lesson manipulatives can be found on my Teachers Pay Teachers page starting in September (these free manipulatives are now showing up on my TPT page). Up until then, you can have them for free (as seen below and beginning to show up on my TPT page). This gives you the opportunity to use the video for free to work well with your classroom approach or purchase the lesson that goes along with the video on my TPT page. Either way, the videos are free to use in your classroom.

Google slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1fHjgrbaRpyIiBY6aLjXf0XuRk8G-96EGEj94rr9w2_w/copy

PDF File: https://drive.google.com/file/d/10_7A9PKoapFKYa7ZvIojoJ55OizNpaY9/view?usp=sharing

Seesaw Activity: https://app.seesaw.me/pages/shared_activity?prompt_id=prompt.49b4ebe7-65bd-48d8-802f-a95ce1a54873&share_token=DmycA2--QjqHlOUx6gERkw

YouTube Play-Along Video: https://youtu.be/hCwj2SRlunY

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categories / #elmusedtech, Assessment, Boomwhackers, Google Slides, Grade 3, Grade 4, Grade 5, Grade 1, Grade 2, Kindergarten, Play-Along Videos, Recorder, Seesaw
tags / #elmused, #elementarymusicteacher, #free, #edtech, #elementarymusicteacherlife

©2025 amymburns.com

Any info, student examples, pictures, graphics, etc, may be used with permission. Please contact me personally before using any info, student examples, pictures, graphics, etc.