Monday, May 19, 2008

The Magic School Bus™

Today, my son’s class went on a field trip to a museum. On the way there, we rode in a fancy bus and watched videos of Scholastic’s The Magic School Bus™.

Now, if you’ve never met Ms. Frizzle, the wild and wonderful teacher that leads the class on these magical science adventures, you’re in for a treat. Her magic school bus is an amazing machine that can transport students to the far reaches of outer space, inside the human body, or down an ant hill. Along the way, her young pupils make discoveries about their surroundings and learn about science.

At the end of each video, there’s a mock call-in session where kids ask questions of the producers like, “Could this really happen?” This is followed by a brief explanation of which facts are true and which ones were stretched for the sake of a good story.

The Magic School Bus™ website includes Science Fun Activities to try after watching the videos, fun online games and this week’s experiment. In addition to the videos, there are over 40 The Magic School Bus™ books in print, with most geared to the 6-9 year-old set.

Check them out! Or, as Ms. Frizzle would say,

“Wahoo! Take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!”

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