Annual MFS Book and Bot Parade Showcases Philadelphia Landmarks and Robot Floats of Popular Book Characters

Second, third, and seventh graders proudly showed off their interactive cityscapes and custom robot floats during this year’s annual Book and Bot Parade on February 7. 

To kick off this year’s parade planning, second grade float designers polled their Lower School peers on popular book characters. The winning characters – including Clifford the Big Red Dog, Pusheen the Cat, and Bad Kitty – were then selected to turn into parade floats. 

Each float was then programmed to parade through a cityscape of popular Philadelphia landmarks, designed by third grade students in Rachel Kaplan’s coding class. Students thought about what types of buildings make up a city, then worked together in small groups to construct and program iconic Philadelphia buildings including Lincoln Financial Field, Citizens Bank Park, the Walnut Street Theater, Geno’s Steaks, and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Through wiring and coding various circuits, third graders made their buildings spin, blink, and wave while the second graders’ parade floats passed by. 

Additional Philadelphia landmarks like the Rocky Statue and City Hall were 3D printed and included in the cityscape, courtesy of seventh graders from their computer science class.

For more photos and videos of the 2025 Book and Bot parade, click here.