Oh, say, can you sing?

Wilson Elementary School formed the largest American flag in McAllen for a brief time Friday morning.

“Put your stars up — hold on to them without moving them,” school librarian Lydia Soto instructed the students forming the flag’s star-spangled field of blue.

The fewer than 500-member student body wore red, white and blue to correspond with their places in the human flag. Looking up, they waved to photographers positioned overhead in a McAllen Fire Department cherry picker and sang the national anthem.

“We want to hear you loud and clear,” Principal Mariella Gorena said.

Wilson Elementary was one of five Texas elementary schools to participate in the National Association for Music Education’s National Anthem Day. The day celebrates Francis Scott Key writing “The Star-Spangled Banner” as he watched American and British troops fight in Maryland during the War of 1812. The other Texas schools that participated were in Corpus Christi, Dallas, Irving and Sugar Land.

“With the state the country is in, we need to be grateful and need to know why we’re out there — the freedoms granted to us through wars and the efforts of our ancestors. And we have to preserve that,” Gorena said.

But fifth-grader Juan Valdez, 11, had his attention elsewhere during some of the event.

“I liked the fire engine,” he said.

After the first go-round of the national anthem, the students sang America’s hymn again, this time facing the waving flag on the school flagpole.

The student body also sang other patriotic songs for the parents and school staff gathered for the occasion.

“(We learned) our country is strong,” fourth-grader Isabel Gonzalez, 11, said about learning their musical program.

Soto, the school librarian, also was in charge of a contest in which students made banners depicting the American flag and reflecting their own personalities.

Music teacher Becky Gutierrez said school staff decided two weeks ago to commemorate the day for the first time.

The students get plenty of practice singing the national anthem. Gutierrez said students learn the song in a patriotic music unit she starts the school year with and also sing it during each Monday morning’s announcements.

Monitor staff writer Jennifer L. Berghom contributed to this report.

Daniel Perry covers education and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4454.