Balloons Over Broadway

Photo Credit: http://melissasweet.net/ 

Every year growing up at home my family had a tradition.  We would wake up, help mom get the food started for our meal, then we would curl up in front of the TV to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  I think as soon as the parade started mom enjoyed the peace, quiet, and solitude she had when she was in the kitchen without us in her way!  My dad is a huge Broadway and marching band fanatic and his enthusiasm has oozed onto me!  I love being able to get a glimpse of "city life" and dreaming of traveling to the amazing NYC to see the parade in person some day.  So, you can imagine my excitement when I stumbled across the book Balloons Over Broadway by Melissa Sweet.  It is a beautifully written book written about Tony Sarg, the puppeteer of Macy's parade.  The week before Thanksgiving I got the idea to have the fourth graders create SES' own Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in our cafeteria.  I asked them to think of book characters that kids would recognize and create that for the parade. Next year, I will allow more time for them to study the history and to also have more creative time to create their masterpieces.  Here is how this year's turned out...the kids were stoked about it.  And they got a ton of compliments!