First grader Victoria Campisi releases her balloons from Union Elementary School. (Michael Snyder photos) | ZOOM |

        WEST CHESTER TWP. — Eighteen children lined the blacktop Thursday behind Union Elementary School, each clutching a pair of brightly colored, helium-filled balloons.

        Madison Fales, 6, watched teacher Amy Boucher-Castro, waiting for the word to let go of her balloon. Shortly after 10 a.m. she heard the word she'd been waiting for: Launch!

        “Oh, oh, oh, look!” an excited Madison said while pointing to the sky and the soaring balloons. “My green one went so high! Wow!”

        The balloon launch for Mrs. Castro's first-graders came on the anniversary of the first hot-air balloon launch, in 1793, by French doctor Pilatre de Rozier. To celebrate, the students launched their own helium-filled balloons, each attached to a paper hot-air balloon that had the school's name and address.

Cards attached to some helium balloons will be used for mapping. | ZOOM |

        “I always want to get them excited about learning,” Mrs. Castro said of the launch. “This is a great way to introduce patterns from math, the historic perspective, and mapping skills when they return. We're getting some cultural diversity by learning about France.”

        When the balloons were launched last year, Mrs. Castro said the farthest-traveling balloon went near Cleveland. She expects to get some feedback from those finding the balloons in two weeks.

        “I think it will go all the way to San Francisco,” said Steven Evans, 6. “When she said "launch' I just let it go and it lifted. It's going to go a long way.”

        Amber Davis wasn't sure the balloons would go in the air, especially when the ribbons got tangled in her shoes just before the launch.

        “I thought it was going to come back down,” Amber said. “It didn't. Mine is going to go to Florida.”
       

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