Balloons Over Broadway by Melissa Sweet is one of our favorite picture books about the Thanksgiving season. It tells the true story of Tony Sarg, the original puppeteer behind the iconic Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons. The book is beautifully illustrated and rich with information about the world-famous parade and how it has evolved over time. Easily a 5-star book in my opinion.
BUILDING BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE
Depending on your location and the age of your students, you might learn some of the children aren’t familiar with this parade. Macy’s official parade site has loads of kid-friendly information and videos to help out. THE ROAD TO 34TH STREET is a series of three short videos showing children the process designers, artists, and engineers go through to get the parade ready each year.
On that same page, you can click through to a related resource for teachers: PARADE 101: S.T.E.A.M. FOR STUDENTS. In this video series, the Macy’s Parade Team talks about how they bring science, technology, engineering, art, and math concepts together to create a magical experience year after year. Your students will love these videos!
- DIY Sculpting Dough
- Inflation Fundamentals
- Balloon Design Basics
- Float Building Fun
ONE MORE THING… WHAT IS A MARIONETTE?
Let’s be honest… this just isn’t a marionette generation of kids. (Even I’m not old enough to have had marionettes in my toy box. I was more of a Barbie Townhouse meets Rubik’s Cube kind of kid.) In Balloons Over Broadway, Melissa Sweet explains how young Tony Sarg was always fascinated by the way things moved and eventually became a master builder of marionettes… to which some children will inevitably reply, “What’s a marionette?”
On the Easy Peasy and Fun website, the editors share a really cute project and video for kids: HOW TO MAKE A DOG MARIONETTE PUPPET. It’s a fun engineering project… and TOO CUTE to miss! Check it out!
AFTER YOU READ THE BOOK…
For me, the most natural thing to do after reading Balloons Over Broadway is to make our own balloons! This obviously would lead to us having our own spectacular hallway holiday parade. Right? You can either do this as a class or (for the big community wow factor) with your whole grade level team. Want to add to the experience? Spend a few days letting kids “build” skyscrapers out of boxes or paper to line your hallway walls. This is also a fun design and construction activity and really sets the stage for the student-led parade.
PRO ACCOMMODATION TIP: If you have kids with latex allergies, sensory issues, or something I like to call balloon anxiety, they can be your parade’s marching band instead. Provide these kids with instruments and give them some time to plan and prepare for their part in the holiday parade. Not into music? Maybe they’re a performer of some other type. Dancer? Gymnast? Local sports hero? Or maybe they’d like to build a float using a wagon base. You get the gist. There’s room on the playground for everyone.
Then, wrap up the parade with some pumpkin muffins and warm cider (or cookies and hot chocolate). It’s a great way to send kids off before the Thanksgiving holidays!
READING COMPREHENSION ACTIVITIES
Balloons Over Broadway is so complete with information, it lends itself well to a little skill-based work. These materials are perfect for helping children dive deeper into the text and demonstrate their understanding of the content by:
- identifying problems and their solutions
- developing a character map of Tony Sarg
- determining the author’s purpose
- summarizing the text
Also included are related phonics lessons and two differentiated texts about additional parade facts. I love these little books because the kids get to illustrate the pages themselves. It’s another way for me to see how they’re making meaning and processing new vocabulary words.
You can preview of this resource HERE. It’s best for children in 1st or 2nd grade, but would also be appropriate for 3rd graders who need a little extra support.
MORE HOLIDAY FUN
Happy teaching!
