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Space exploration through song (video)

DeLeon Elementary School students learn about outer space through song.
  • BY CAROLINA ASTRAIN - CASTRAIN@VICAD.COM
  • Originally published March 9, 2013 at midnight, updated March 12, 2013 at 2:32 p.m.

  • Song List From 'Spaced Out'

  • •  Blast Off!

    • Meteor Shower

    • One Small Step

    • The Planets

    • We're As Different As Night and Day

    SOURCE: Sheetmusicplus.com

A cloth sun and moon danced upon the sparkling elementary school stage.

"I'm the sun. I'm the center of the system," sang 9-year-old Mariah Steen, dressed as the boiling celestial body. "I need you, and you need me."

DeLeon Elementary School parents and teachers gathered in the spacious auditorium, sitting along aisles of cafeteria tables to watch their students sing their parts in "Spaced Out" a 2005 musical directed by music teacher Kathy Stratmann.

Little feet rushed in and out of their queued locations between songs, then one child sings out, "The sky is falling."

Third-graders jammed out on felt and cardboard guitars during the musical's smash rock hit, "Meteor Shower."

Teachers Lenora Mowdy, Jamie Biles, Patti Wied and Sarah Harper surprised the students with an onstage appearance in sparkling ribbon wigs during the rock 'n' roll set.

Then the celestial bodies moved into their next autobiographical number, "The Planets."

"I'm Uranus. I lie on my side."

"I'm Mercury. I'm hot, rocky and small."

"For what it's worth, I'm the Earth."

Stratmann thanked all the teachers and parents who volunteered with the show's costumes and organizing.

Debra Tate came to see her grandson, Devrick Pratt, 9, sing and dance.

"I thought it was amazing," Tate said. "He's been talking about this all week."