Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot Read Aloud STEM Challenge

Learn about Lt Gail Halvorsen, make a chocolate parachute, and write some chocolate poetry!

This history STEM activity is designed to support STEM teachers, elementary classroom teachers, homeschooling parents, and after-school programs. It's a great introduction to poetry and history.

In the book Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot, Lt. Gail Halvorsen dropped more than 250,000 candy-loaded parachutes to the children of Berlin, Germany. Can your students design a parachute to safely deliver the chocolate bars? For this STEM challenge, students design and build a parachute to safely deliver chocolate.

After they have completed the challenge there are two writing extension options. Students can write a poem about chocolate using their senses to describe it. They can also write a letter to the chocolate pilot.

It's a great companion to Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot by Margot Theis Raven! You can also connect this to the book Christmas from Heaven: The True Story of the Berlin Candy Bomber by Tom Brokaw and Robert T. Barrett.

This STEM challenge aligns with NGSS, Common Core, and TEKS.

Materials:

• string or yarn
• copy paper
• pipe cleaners
• coffee filters
• tissue paper
• mini chocolate bars
• tape
• Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot by Margot Theis Raven (optional)

Included:

• Detailed lesson plan
• Easy-to-follow instructions
• Examples
• Vocabulary words (airlift, Berlin, frau)
• Hershey's Kiss poetry writing extension
• Chocolate Pilot letter writing extension
• STEM challenge
• NGSS Standards
• Common Core Standards
• TEKs Standards

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