ELKTON — The third-grade class at River Bend Elementary in Elkton gave the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade a run for its money on Tuesday morning. With help from the East Rockingham High School band, students blew up balloons and decorated them, then paraded them down the elementary school hallway. Others made posters of Spiderman, Stitch or Pokemon and carried them around.
The event lasted from about 8:30 to 9 a.m. The parade route was a loop of the school, taking in the main office, the pre-K through fifth hallways.
Teacher Kelli Burgess, who helped organize the parade, was Santa. Just as the Macy’s parade ends with Santa to symbolize that Christmas is coming, Burgess did the same for the class. The school has been doing the Thanksgiving parade every year for the past four years.
Burgess described the connection. “We’re celebrating the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade because we do a whole unit on balloons,” she said. “How Tony Sarg was a puppeteer, and that’s where the balloons came from.
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And then we celebrate it by creating the balloons we use as marionettes.” Every year, the parade is a little different. This time, Burgess said that instead of blowing up balloons and decorating them, some students drew and carried pictures on paper.
Kindergarteners participated, too — as book buddies of the third graders. “It’s something the kids look forward to, and it’s funny. I always say to the book buddies, ‘We’re doing it this year.
Then get ready t.
