Macy's Day Parade

Today our first graders designed and built their own version of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade as part of a cross-curricular STEM lesson.
In ELA, students read the book "Balloons over Broadway" by Melissa Sweet, which is a biography of Tony Sarg, the puppeteer behind Macy’s Thanksgiving parade. They learned all about helium balloons, the route for the parade, float building, balloon designs, and the lineup for the year. They also recreated the parade route in New York City to display the buildings, streets, and Central Park.
In Computer Class, the students learned how to program Ozobot robots using color codes to power their floats during the parade. The Ozobot, a mouse-sized self-propelled robot, is capable of reading colored line combinations and performing corresponding actions.
Our kindergarten spectators cheered on the parade as the first grade engineers carefully steered their floats through New York City! A huge thank you to Mrs. Vicendese, Mrs. Sugatan, Ms. Dresner, Ms. Hall, and Mrs. Phelps, for their guidance and support on this lesson. Well done First Grade!