Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot Read Aloud STEM Challenge

Learn about Lt Gail Halvorsen, make a chocolate parachute, and write some chocolate poetry!
This history STEM activity is designed to support STEM teachers, elementary classroom teachers, homeschooling parents, and after-school programs. It's a great introduction to poetry and history.

In the book Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot, Lt. Gail Halvorsen dropped more than 250,000 candy-loaded parachutes to the children of Berlin, Germany.

Can your students design a parachute to safely deliver the chocolate bars?

Material List:

• string or yarn

• copy paper

• pipe cleaners

• coffee filters

• tissue paper

• mini chocolate bars

• tape

• Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot by Margot Theis Raven

For this STEM challenge, students design and build a parachute to safely deliver chocolate.

After they have completed the challenge there are two writing extension options. Students can write a poem about chocolate using their senses to describe it. They can also write a letter to the chocolate pilot.

It's a great companion to Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot by Margot Theis Raven! You can also connect this to the book Christmas from Heaven: The True Story of the Berlin Candy Bomber by Tom Brokaw and Robert T. Barrett.

Have more questions or need additional resources?

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