AUSTINTOWN — For schoolchildren, the holiday season almost always includes some fun projects, but at Austintown Middle School some of them make a whole parade of it.

Sixth-grade language arts teacher Jessica Tomic isn’t sure if it’s the sixth or seventh year for what has now become a tradition, but on Monday her class and two others — newcomers to the party — displayed their annual “Balloons Over Broadway” float parade down one hallway of the third floor.

“This is the biggest parade we’ve had yet, which is between 150 and 160 floats,” she said. “The students do some amazing work and we see a little of everything. Some play music, some light up, some have moving parts and pieces.”

The floats are the final leg of a weekslong lesson that begins with reading the book “Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade” by Melissa Sweet. The book tells the story of Tony Sarg, the German-American puppet master who, in the late 1920s, turned Macy’s parade marionettes into the beloved floating spectacles we’ve all come to know and love.

Tomic said the students study the parade, the different floats and balloons that have been used, and learn about everything from history and social studies to math and mapping.

At the end of the unit, they get a month to work on their floats, either replicating a classic float from Macy’s parade history or creating a new concept of their own.

Tomic has run the event for the past several years, but invited two of her colleagues to join in this year. Students from April Loudin’s and Michelle Porter’s sixth-grade classes also participated, topping last year’s float count by well over 50. Tomic said some staff members even got in on the fun, adding their own creations to the festive display.

While students get credit in class, they also get to vote on each other’s projects. On parade day, all the staff members in the building come by and vote for their favorites, using “thumbs-up” cards.

“They each get three cards, but they’re always begging me for more,” Tomic said.

The most popular floats will be featured on the Austintown Local Schools community Facebook page, where family and friends can cast votes for their favorites among those winners.

Among some of the favorites were a large pirate ship; a Thanksgiving Day kitchen scene; a Willy Wonka themed float with a spinning chocolate bar that plays Gene Wilder singing “Pure Imagination”; a Peanuts-themed float; and many other intricately designed scenes and balloon concepts.

Jackson Clay’s float was a scaled replica of the house from the Disney-Pixar film “UP!”, made from cardboard with painted Styrofoam balls as balloons coming out of the chimney.

“It’s one of my mom’s favorite movies and mine, and the project made us think of balloons and so we thought of this,” he said.

Clay said he enjoyed learning about the history of the parade and what it was like in the earliest days before Sarg replaced the marionettes with the beloved balloons. While he never really made the parade a holiday priority, he said he plans to watch it this year.

Graham Hoskins created the Willy Wonka float.

“I like all three of the movies, so I tried to have some elements from all of them,” he said.

The float includes fake candy bought at the craft store, a pipe pouring chocolate into a chocolate river, and the spinning Wonka bar, all blessed with the ambiance of Wilder’s voice.

Hoskins said he enjoyed working with his family on the project — something Tomic and her colleagues encourage — going to the craft store and seeing the project come to life.

“I learned that working hard can bring you to good things,” he said, describing the lessons from the book and the creative experience. “I got to spend time with my family working on it, and I like the movie even more now because I got to research it a bit.”

Makenna Murray said Snoopy has always been her favorite cartoon character, ever since she received a stuffed Snoopy toy as a gift when she was 3.

Her Peanuts-themed float is made mostly out of wood, and features 3D-printed characters her grandfather made for the project. They shredded cotton balls to make fluffy snow and filled in with some store-bought snow spray, and added a fence made of popsicle sticks.

Murray said the float took a week to make and they spent at least three hours a day on it over the weekend.

Although Murray said she only learned of the Macy’s parade because of the school project, she may have a future in keeping the New York tradition alive and thriving, having learned a few important lessons from the experience.

“It’s about creativity, but it’s mostly about having fun, it doesn’t matter what place you get,” she said. She also learned the value of patience.

“When I first started on it, I thought it would be terrible, but when I got done with it, I loved it,” she said. “It’s one of my favorite projects I’ve ever done.”