A Saskatoon school's musical monster mash-up is a Halloween smash.
An online video of a group of Bethlehem Catholic High School students signing and dancing to a modified version of the classic song Monster Mash was released Wednesday and had been watched almost 6,000 times by Oct. 31. The song is a mash-up of the Halloween standard and the Gangnam Style pop song and music video.
The young hitmakers in the school's functional integrated program, which serves students aged 14 to 22 with special needs, couldn't be happier, one of their teachers said.
"It's been pretty cool for the kids. Their self-esteem is so important," said Cheryl Lenz-Fabian, a special education learning assistance teacher.
"Our principal has received phone calls and emails from people talking about how wonderful (the video) is."
The five-minute video posted on YouTube features students acting in a short Frankenstein introduction before other students join in to sing and dance through the high school's hallways and in front of green screens showing Halloween scenes.
The project, which involved about 25 students in front of and behind the camera, started in September and wrapped in late October.
While it sounds like nothing but fun, the project also offered teachable moments, Lenz-Fabian said.
"Our students are such visual learners and we thought this was a great way to realize their goals," she said, adding the teachers take a visual approach - showing instead of telling - to special needs education.
"There were some scenes that took numerous takes, but the students did it. They just needed more time ... These kids can do anything when they put their minds to it and take the time."
Educational assistant Jesse Weiman put together the video, which used a lot of the high school's audiovisual equipment. Students from the drama department helped, as well as many other staff and students.
"It was a way to tie in the rest of the student body with our own student body," Lenz-Fabian said.
The project used Gangnam Style, the Korean pop song that is now YouTube's mostwatched video, because it's a favourite among the program's students, Lenz-Fabian said.
