Curriculum

As you look through the materials displayed in this exhibit, consider how you can use them in your specific educational setting. This page contains some idea seeds for using this exhibit in the classroom.

Answer the "Engineer a Thought" questions on each page.

• Find all the elephant balloons in the published book. Compare them to the trial and error drafts of the elephant.
• Use Melissa Sweet's brainstorming papers, included in several areas of this exhibit, as models for brainstorming activities.
• Make your own "laughmeters" and "funometers" like Melissa Sweet's. Use them to "measure" the humor in Balloons Over Broadway and other books.
• Read Balloons Over Broadway and then view the exhibit for a general discussion of how books are made.
• Use examples in the exhibit and Balloons Over Broadway to guide making mixed media art.
• Incorporate into an engineering unit. Refer to Balloons Over Broadway for engineering content and use the exhibit materials as an example of how illustration/art also involves engineering.
• Explore the links page for supplemental materials like videos.
• Design discussion questions about the genre of Balloons Over Broadway that require students to use Melissa Sweet's interview comments and the research page for information
• Read the author interview and come up with your own questions for Melissa Sweet and other authors.
• Research a lesser-known historical figure and make lists like Melissa Sweet's Tony Sarg lists.