RACINE - Students at the Racine Montessori School lifted their voices Monday and joined about 50,000 children around the world in singing a 24-hour song for peace.

The Montessori School's 212 students gathered in front of the school around 11 a.m. Holding hands and standing in small semi-circle rows, the preschoolers through eighth-graders readied themselves for singing, the younger students bouncing around in anticipation.

When a boombox started playing the song, called "Light a Candle for Peace," the students' voices rang out, hoping "that our wish for world peace will one day come true."

The students sang the song three times, once with just words and twice with words and sign language motions as staff and some parents stood watching in the schoolyard, 2317 Howe St.

The singing was a way to celebrate the United Nation's International Day of Peace, which was Monday. The day was started in the 1980s but Monday was the first time Montessori schools organized to sing a peace song, school Administrator Rita Lewis said.

"The idea is for peace in general - not because of a particular event, such as 9/11 or anything," Lewis said. "It's simply a desire for world peace. Maria Montessori, (the founder of the Montessori Method of education), said that if we are ever to expect world peace, we have to start with the children and educate them."

The children in Racine sang for five minutes from 11:13 to 11:18 a.m., the school's assigned time slot.

"We will sing our five minute song and then another school will start singing when we stop singing and we don't even know who it is," Lewis told the children.

Participating schools like the Racine Montessori School were given time slots to sing throughout the 24-hour day so that during the day students somewhere were always singing. The song traveled west through all the time zones starting in New Zealand and ending in the Hawaiian Islands, Lewis said.

All Montessori schools were invited to participate and non-Montessori schools could sign up too. If no school signed up or existed in a time zone, another school was assigned that time to sing, Lewis said.

After students at each school sang, staff members were supposed to go online to blog about the experience, detailing when and where they sang as well as how many people participated.

Before Racine sang, there were already about 50 blog posts added from schools in places like Indonesia, Taiwan, South Africa and Germany, four of the 34 countries signed up to participate.

To prepare for the peace performance, schools got copies of the music and lyrics this summer. Racine's students had been practicing the song since school started three weeks ago and they all seemed very prepared, said music teacher Tami Payne.

"They're just such quick learners and they really took to the song this year," Payne said. "We loved the fact that it continues around the world for 24 hours."