A homecoming is when a school's alumni (students who have graduated) return for a celebration. Every year, people who attended Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma, are invited to a special event-filled weekend called homecoming. One of the big events that people look forward to is the homecoming parade, because it has many colorful and unusual floats.

Usually a float is built on top of a flatbed trailer used for transporting materials. The trailer is covered with colorful material and fringe so its wheels are hidden and the trailer appears to "float." Then the float can be decorated with just about anything.

Many floats are in the form of animals. Floats are made by bending chicken wire into a shape, perhaps an animal, and then attaching colored paper "flowers" to the wire. Part of the process of building a float involves "pomping" -- the stuffing of crepe paper or other decorations into the wire frame of the float to make it look like whatever it was designed to be.

Can you think of a cool float design?

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