Balloon Parade
It's an Increase Miller tradition for third graders to read "Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of the Macy's Parade," by Melissa Sweet, with Librarian Juli Hoffman. The book kicks off the students' process of conceptualizing and designing their very own balloon characters to march in a parade around the school.
A parade of book and movie characters, seasonal favorites and more
"The day before Thanksgiving, the 3rd graders' magnificent upside-down marionettes rose up to the skies! Nodding and waving to the crowds below, they sailed past A Wing. They sailed past the gymnasium. They shimmied through the canyons of the Cafetorium. High above the crowds, they flounced in the morning winds, pulling their handlers this way and that. Yet with every heave-ho, the balloons gestured and articulated like wild puppets and the crowds screamed for more. It was a parade Increase Miller would never forget."
(Adapted by IMES Librarian Juli Hoffman from "Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade")
