Bring New York City’s Landmarks and Balloons Over Broadway to Your Classroom!
Do your students love the excitement of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade?
Bring that magic into the classroom with the Balloons Over Broadway New York Landmarks STEM Challenge! This engaging STEM activity allows students to create and celebrate iconic NYC landmarks while exploring engineering, design, and coding.
Want more Balloons Over Broadway Tips and Ideas? Check out the replay of our November STEM Planning Party!
Simplifying Your Planning Process
This lesson is available on Teachers Pay Teachers. However, the best way to access all of the Balloons Over Broadway lessons is through the STEM Teachers Club Membership.
The STEM Teachers Club Membership not only provides high-quality lesson plans but also offers a structured approach to implementing them. With weekly themes and suggested read-alouds, you can easily integrate STEM into your daily schedule. Through the STEM Teachers Club you are able to gain access to our full catalog of lessons with unlimited downloads and you can cancel anytime.
What is the New York City Landmarks Balloons Over Broadway Challenge?
Students will:
Learn about famous New York City landmarks.
Create model replicas of landmarks using makerspace materials.
Design a parade route for miniature robots carrying “balloon floats” to follow.
Code the robots to follow the parade route, stopping at each landmark where students can present fun facts.
Materials List:
To make this activity easy to set up, here’s a comprehensive materials list:
Cardboard (or 3DuxDesign cardboard kits and connectors)
Markers, crayons, or color sticks for decorating
Glue or tape
Scissors
Various Makerspace materials, such as:
Craft sticks, thin cardboard (like cereal boxes), and toilet paper tubes
Plastic caps, cups, and cotton balls
Yarn, string, and pipe cleaners
Construction paper, cardstock, and tissue paper
Rubber bands, paper clips, and straws
Robots (such as Dash, Spheros, Bee-Bots or other classroom robots)
Bot Map from 3DuxDesign (optional)
Decorated balloons
Optional: Balloons Over Broadway by Melissa Sweet for reading inspiration
You can get all of the Balloons Over Broadway resources in our Balloons Over Broadway Bundle on TPT. However, for the same price you can get a month of unlimited downloads in the STEM Teachers Club Membership! Use Code CarlyandAdamBlog to get $5 off your first month of membership!
STEM Learning Outcomes
This challenge introduces students to the engineering design process (Ask, Imagine, Plan, Create, Test, Improve, Share) and connects to standards across science, technology, and math. It encourages creativity, teamwork, and problem-solving as students work together to build and code their mini parades.
You can get all of the Balloons Over Broadway resources in our Balloons Over Broadway Bundle on TPT. However, for the same price you can get a month of unlimited downloads in the STEM Teachers Club Membership! Use Code CarlyandAdamBlog to get $5 off your first month of membership!
Start a New Thanksgiving Tradition in the Classroom!
This STEM challenge brings hands-on learning and New York City’s famous landmarks to life, allowing students to participate in their very own Thanksgiving Day Parade. It’s the perfect mix of creativity, engineering, and fun!
You can get all of the Balloons Over Broadway resources in our Balloons Over Broadway Bundle on TPT. However, for the same price you can get a month of unlimited downloads in the STEM Teachers Club Membership! Use Code CarlyandAdamBlog to get $5 off your first month of membership!
Have more questions or need additional resources?
You can get all 500+ STEM Challenges by Carly and Adam as part of the STEM Teachers Club Membership. Save $5 on your first month using coupon Code: CarlyAndAdamBlog.
We hope you have found this blog post helpful. To stay connected with Carly and Adam's teaching tips and classroom freebies be sure to follow us on Facebook, Pinterest, Teachers Pay Teachers, and subscribe to our blog!