Mini mastercraftsmen make their own Macy's Day Parade

The hallways of Wareham Elementary School played host to their own version of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade as second graders became engineers and designed and built their own parade floats in the fourth annual Wareham Elementary School Thanksgiving Parade.

The parade took place Wednesday, Nov. 27 when over 100 second graders took to the halls of the school to show off the floats they spent months working on with Elizabeth Costa, a science, technology, engineering and math teacher.

The second graders were put into small teams to design and build floats to look like an animal. Each float was made using carboard boxes wheeled around on mini scooters decorated with construction paper, cups, pipe cleaners and a variety of other materials.

"We start in October and they learn about the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade and how those balloons are created," said Costa. "They start as a plan, become a model and then an actual balloon and from there we talk about how the students are going to build floats starting from cardboard boxes."

Costa added this parade has become a tradition many kids look forward to and it presents a great learning opportunity for the kids.

"They really learn how to construct, engineer and build things but they also have to do it as a team," said Costa. "A lot of them have all sorts of different ideas but they have to agree on what to do."

Cash Devaney, 7, walked in the parade and he and his team made a buffalo. He said his favorite part of the parade was seeing his brother cheering him on.

Noah Numper, 7, also walked in the parade and said he was glad he got to wave to his friends and his old teachers as he walked with the dragon he and his team made.

Jolene Lemieux, 7, and her team made a werehog and she was also glad to see her friends in the parade and wave at them.

While the parade is mostly comprised of second graders showing off their hard work, each year the parade is led by two first graders nominated by the faculty to carry a banner reading "WES Thanksgiving Parade."

Henry Knight, 7, was one of the first graders selected and said he is looking forward to building a float next year and added he is hoping to build a spider because that is his favorite animal.

Since the tradition began, Costa said the kids get more and more excited to participate.

"Every year I have a lot of second graders who can't wait to make their floats and our third and fourth graders remember doing it and being super excited," said Costa. "It's evolved every year and the kids always have new ideas and it's a great opportunity for second graders to look forward to something and for the third and fourth graders to encourage the younger kids."