VEX Thanksgiving Day Parade

The holiday season is upon us and I wanted to share this fun and easy activity we are doing with our 2nd and 3rd graders in the library this week! Students watched a short documentary and listened to the book, “Balloons Over Broadway”. This story is about Tony Sarg, the puppeteer who created the balloons for the Macy’s Parade. Our students created “balloons” for their own VEX Parade.
Check out my slide deck for links to the documentary and a read-aloud version of the book!
VEX 123 Thanksgiving Day Parade Slide Deck
Classes that I saw more than once, created laminated foil balloons from a project I found on Tik Tok.


For classes with less time, we used card stock to create the balloons.

My students are new to using the Coder Cards, so used the parade route as an opportunity to discuss “loops”. They decomposed the route into one stretch with a left turn that repeated using the “go to start” block.

3 Likes

This is great! I like how you attached your balloons using IQ pieces! VEX GO pieces would work as well.

1 Like

This is so fun @James_Nesbitt
Thank you for sharing.
We should start a “Thanksgiving” channel we have so much good content now! :grin:

1 Like

Great stuff here - I love this.

Absolutely! I love that the art ring has pin holes to build from. So much potential for engineering challenges!

2 Likes


These balloons are coming out even cuter than expected and the kids are having so much coding the parade route!

3 Likes