Have you ever been to a parade? Today, we read the story of Tony Sarg the puppeteer. He was one of the first people to design and create the floating balloon ‘puppets’ commonly used in the Macy’s parade in New York City! This parade has been going on since 1924 (almost 100 years). Below is a photo of one of the first balloon puppets designed by Tony:
Some questions to consider:
-How has the design of the balloons changed over the years? Why do you think they have made these changes?
-Why do the designers use helium instead of another gas (like oxygen)?
-If you were going to design a balloon float, what character/creature would you design?