12 Message By Balloon

Message By Balloon written by Pam Holden illustrated by Robin Vanit Hof

At school, the children were learning about different kinds of weather. When the class went outside to learn about the wind, there were leaves blowing along on the ground. "See how the school flag is flapping and the trees are blowing. Look at the clouds moving across the sky. The wind is blowing from the south today," said the teacher.

The class made a plan to find out more about the wind. The teacher gave everyone a balloon. The children wrote messages to put inside their balloons. Their message said, "Hello from Hilltop School. We are learning about the wind. When did you get this message? Where did you find it? Please call our school - 555 678 1234."

The children blew up all of the balloons - Puff! Puff! Puff! Puff! They tied a string onto each balloon before they let them go outside. Soon there were twenty balloons floating slowly up into the sky. There were ten round, red ones and ten long, yellow ones.

The teacher showed the class which way was north and south, and which way was east and west. As the wind blew the balloons far away, she asked, "Which way are they blowing? Why?"

After two weeks, the school got a call. A man said, "I have found your balloon. It popped outside my house, so I read the message inside it." He said, "I know a lot about the wind, because I am a weather man. I can help you to learn all about it."