Hey friends! Welcome back to the Firstieland Podcast. I’m your host, Molly Schwab.
Well, I know it’s only the end of October, but I’m already thinking ahead to next month. When I was teaching, I always tried to plan ahead, especially this time of year. There were so many fun things I wanted to do around the holidays, and I knew I had to plan ahead to fit everything in.

So, I figured I’d get a jump on Thanksgiving with this episode in case you feel the same way. This week, we’re talking about how you can take one very special Thanksgiving book to teach reading comprehension, vocabulary, writing, and STEM.

So let’s get started!

Hey there, I’m Molly from Firstieland, a former elementary teacher with over 30 years of experience in kindergarten and first grade. I’m here to help make teaching a little easier and a lot more fun. Whether you’re looking for the perfect read aloud, fresh writing ideas, or simple classroom [00:01:00] tips, I’ve got quick, practical strategies you can use right away.

New teacher or experienced educator, there’s something for everyone in Firstieland—so grab your coffee and teacher bag. Let’s get started!

I love Thanksgiving—the turkey cooking in the oven, baking pies, burning the rolls. Unfortunately, that seems to be one of my family traditions since I burn them every single year. It’s no joke! In fact, it’s like a family tradition at this point. My kids just expect burned rolls at Thanksgiving.

But when I was a kid, the thing I loved most was the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on television—watching all the balloons and waiting for Santa to show up at the end.

So how can you take all of this excitement and turn it into a meaningful project in your classroom? Well, that’s what we’re going to talk about today with one of my favorite picture books [00:02:00] called Balloons Over Broadway by Melissa Sweet.

If you’ve never read this book, it’s the story of Tony Sarg, who was the creator of the giant balloons we all love in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

In the book, we learn that as a young child, Tony loved puppets. He began his career as a puppeteer and eventually moved to New York City, where his puppets performed on Broadway. R.H. Macy, the owner of Macy’s department store, heard about Tony Sarg and his amazing puppets, so he hired him to make puppets for the store windows.

If you know anything about Macy’s in New York City, they’re famous for their huge display windows—especially around the holidays. Tony created beautiful animated display windows with his puppets, and R.H. Macy was so impressed that he asked Tony to create a special holiday parade for his employees.

Over time, Tony worked to perfect the parade. He noticed that the people in the back couldn’t see the puppets, and he wanted everyone to be able to enjoy the show. That’s when he got the idea to make the floating puppets on strings that we all know and love today as the giant parade balloons. [00:03:00]

Balloons Over Broadway is such a great book for so many activities you can do with your class. First of all, it’s the story of Tony Sarg’s life, so it’s perfect for teaching kids about nonfiction and biographies. After reading this book to my class, we talked about what a biography is and how it teaches us about the life of a famous person.

It’s also a great book to teach character traits because Tony was so creative, hardworking, and determined to make his balloons work. One of the things we did with this story was talk about Tony’s character traits and the kind of person he was.

It’s also a wonderful book if you want to teach kids about making text [00:04:00] connections. Lots of kids will have memories of watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade at home with their families. It might remind them of Thanksgiving dinner, or of seeing a puppet show in person or on TV.

This book helps kids see how relating a story to their own life can strengthen comprehension. I had a writing template that I gave my students to help them write about their own connection to the story, linking reading comprehension with writing. I’ll link that in the show notes.

Another skill you can teach with this book is problem and solution. The story shows all the challenges Tony faced when he was developing his giant balloons, giving you the perfect opportunity to discuss the problems and how he solved them.

This book also lends itself well to teaching vocabulary. Students will hear words like immigrant, marionette, and spectator. Whenever you can teach vocabulary through a picture book, it’s more effective because kids learn the words in context, helping them understand and remember them better.

Whenever you introduce a new read aloud, I think it’s a great idea to include a writing component. [00:05:00]

In this story, one of Tony’s first jobs was designing Macy’s window displays with animated puppets, which he called Macy’s Wondertown. A fun writing prompt for students is to design and write about their own window display. We brainstormed ideas together and looked at pictures online of real Macy’s displays to spark their imagination.

There are also some great YouTube videos showing Macy’s holiday windows that you can share with your class. I’ll link those in [00:06:00] the show notes.

Another way to use Balloons Over Broadway for writing is to show students how to write a biography or short report about a famous person. And yes—even first graders can do this! One of the writing standards in first grade is to write informative texts where students name a topic and supply some facts about it.

We used a simple writing template, and students wrote about where Tony lived, what he was like as a child, and a few fun facts they learned from the book. I’ll link that template in the show notes, too.

Finally, if you want to incorporate a STEM activity, this story is perfect for that. Have your students design and build their own parade balloons!

We started by watching a short YouTube video (about 4–5 minutes) showing different Macy’s Parade balloons—like Paw Patrol, Bluey, and SpongeBob—so the kids could really visualize what they looked like. Then we brainstormed a list of balloon ideas they could create.

Each student got a planning booklet for their project. On the first page, they drew and labeled their balloon design. [00:07:00] On the next page, they made a list of materials they would need, such as balloons, construction paper, string, and craft sticks.

In Balloons Over Broadway, Tony glued materials to his planning boards—so we included a page for students to glue samples of their materials, too.

I sent a letter home asking parents for donations of craft supplies, and I gathered trays of materials like string, construction paper, balloons, and craft sticks. Students could choose what they needed from the trays as they worked.

Once their planning was complete, it was time to build! The kids used real balloons, decorated them with markers and paper accessories, and brought their creations to life. They turned out adorable!

When they finished, students wrote the steps for how they built their parade balloons. The whole project took about a week, and I loved being able to use one read aloud to cover so many different skills.

I used my Balloons Over Broadway resource from my TPT store to help guide everything.

So just to recap—you can use Balloons Over Broadway to teach informational text, reading comprehension, text connections, vocabulary, writing (like biographies and how-to writing), and even STEM through building parade balloons. [00:09:00]

If you’d like to try some of these activities in your classroom, I have an entire resource in my TPT store with everything I mentioned in today’s episode. I’ll link that in the show notes.

Before we go, I want to give a shoutout to one of our listeners, Kelly, who left a really nice review. She said:

“This podcast is jam-packed with great information. Whether you’re a new or veteran teacher, you’re guaranteed to hear tips that will help you out in your classroom. I can’t wait to hear what other great tidbits you have to share.”

Thanks, Kelly! I’m so glad you’re loving the podcast. Reviews like that really make my day—and they also help other teachers decide if this is the right podcast for them.

So, I’d love it if you could take two minutes right now to leave a review. I read every single one, and they mean so much to me.

Okay friends, that’s it for today! Until next time, remember to make learning feel like play. See you next week!

Thanks so much for tuning in. I hope you’re [00:10:00] walking away with some great tips you can use right away. Be sure to hit the follow or subscribe button so you never miss an episode. And if you’re enjoying the podcast, I’d love it if you’d leave a review.

You can find the show notes and links for everything mentioned in this episode at firstieland.com.
I’ll see you next week in Firstieland!