Is Somebody Singing? In fact, all of the Grade 1-6 students at Dapp School were doing so on May 6, as part of the nationwide sing-along called Music Monday.
Music Monday is an annual event first launched by the Coalition for Music Education in 2005. At the same time each year, schools and other groups across Canada sing a piece of music specifically written for the event.
Dapp School is a frequent participant in Music Monday, trying to do something every year since its launch, indicated Sandi Johnston, who spearheaded the Dapp Music Monday celebration.
“We really like to take part in that, because music is really important in our school as well,” she said.
The song in question this year was “ISS-Is Somebody Singing,” which was penned by Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield and Barenaked Ladies frontman Ed Robertson.
At the exact same time across Canada, schools and other groups from all over the country performed the piece. Hadfield and Robertson also took part, the former playing his guitar aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and Robertson playing alongside a Toronto school choir.
Some of the schools taking part did a live webcast as part of the event, but Dapp did not take part due to Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIP) concerns.
“We didn’t do anything live. We just went through the motions of doing it at the proper time,” said Johnston.
Johnston said they had practiced the song for a few weeks in class prior to performing it. One of their moms, Lisa Seatter, accompanied the students on piano.
Notably, Johnston said all the boys at Dapp seemed as interested in the song as the girls, because of the frequent references to outer space and travelling to the International Space Station.
“It’s a really cool song,” said Johnston. “It’s really, really neat.”
Although they didn’t take part in the webcast, they were planning to put up a video on the Dapp School website, to be found at: www.dappschool.ca.
Notably, Music Monday coincided this year with the annual Education Week, which ran May 6-10. Many other schools across Pembina Hills held their own unique events during the week.
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