Timon: Pumbaa, I don't wonder; I know.
Pumbaa: Oh. What are they?
Timon: They're fireflies. Fireflies that, uh... got stuck up on that big bluish-black thing.
Pumbaa: Oh, gee. I always thought they were balls of gas burning billions of miles away.
Timon: Pumbaa, with you, everything's gas.
- Walt Disney's The Lion King (1994)
Have you ever felt intrigued about space? Ever thought NASA was one of the coolest organizations ever? Was it ever your life's ambition to be an astronaut when you were 5 or 6?
Well, we want to take you on an adventure through the Milky Way Galaxy. We recently read a book called The Magic School Bus: Lost in the Solar System by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen. In this book, a quirky and unpredictable teacher named Ms. Frizzle decides to take her children on a field trip to the local planetarium, only to find out when they get there it is closed. So on the way back to school, the school bus spontaneously sprouts rockets, blasts off into the sky, and eventually arrives in space. They start their journey with visiting the Moon and the Sun and learning things about them. Then, starting with Mercury, they proceed to visit each planet in our solar system in planetary order. They also visit the asteroid belt (do you know where that is?) and end up losing Ms. Frizzle as she is trying to fix a broken taillight on the bus. Read the book to find out what the children do when they lose their teacher and are alone in space, and if they find her again.
This book follows along well with the CCGPS, S4E2.d, "Demonstrate the relative size and order from the sun of the planets in the solar system." Can you tell us what the order of the planets are?
Have you ever wanted to take a tour in space but did not have access to a space shuttle or rocket? Well we have a much safer and cheaper way, and you don't even have to leave Earth!
The activity we found for this book is creating Planet Tours!
1. We will break the students up into groups
2. Each group will have a different planet to research
3. The students will create posters, brochures, or commercials about their planet
4. Each project should include real facts about the planet.
(Examples from the book: Venus is the second planet from the Sun, Mars has two moons, Neptune is about 50,000 km big, etc.)
5. Students shall also think up possible attractions that you might find on the planet.
(Example: The dodging Venus' sulfuric acid contest)
6. Then students will present their planet tour to the class.
We think this book would be a good choice to teach students about the solar system because it is fun, engaging, and entertaining. It also presents scientific facts and ideas in a child's point of view. Children will also enjoy looking at the pictures and little cartoon inserts that contain facts about the solar system.
ATTENTION BLOG READERS!!!
DO NOT ATTEMPT A TRIP TO OUTER SPACE ON YOUR OWN!
1. Attaching rockets to your vehicle if the planetarium is closed will upset your parents, your insurance agent (Geico does not cover outer space travel! I do not care what the commercials say!), your friends for not taking them with you, or your friends for taking them with you and risking their lives. An ordinary vehicle such as a car or truck cannot travel in outer space, and you cannot become astronauts without switching your major and most likely attending more years of college, along with many years of training.
2. Space travel could make you miss dinner, Monday Night Football, or The Walking Dead.......for the rest of your life!!!! Even if your vehicle could go to outer space, it could never travel through the entire solar system in one day. It took years for The Voyager space probes to do that. By the time you got to Uranus.....you'd be dead anyway.
"On the other hand.........If a red-haired teacher in a funny dress shows up at your school....START PACKING!"
Click here to watch the video based on this book.
I love the magic school bus books!! I never read this one or remember watching it. This blog really makes me want to go read this book. Science can be a hard subject to learn and I feel like this book could help when discussing the solar system. When going over a topic such as the solar system, having something fun helps students learn more effectively and on a more involved level. Good job girls :)
ReplyDeleteThe magic school bus shows and books were always a favorite of mine! It really did help me with science, because that is not a strength of men. The magic school,bus make science fun and kids want to know more because of the adventures they go on! These books and shows may be old, but are still a every good resource to use . There are so many differ t topics to choose from, that it will be easy to find and use for your lesson.
ReplyDeleteOlivia
This is a very cute idea! I loved The Magic School Bus when I was younger, it was always neat to see where they were going to go next. I think that this book is great for a planet research activity as you all explained. The book gives the children facts about planets, along with giving their imagination time to explore as well! I like the idea of still using the Magic School Bus, I really think children would enjoy reading it and being able to base a lesson off of it is great!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE the Magic School Bus. I think the activity would be great for students to do. I think kids would enjoy doing this project, as well as reading the book. Grading this project would be fun too, since every group has a different planet. Great job!
ReplyDeleteI just watched this episode with my cousins! They love all the exciting places that the Magic School Bus goes to! I think that the book series is a great way to introduce the topic for the lesson, but it goes without saying that as a teacher we should make sure that the students understand that while the facts may be real, the exploration to explain them is not. For a fourth grade class, I would say that this is a nice project. As a teacher, I would want to give my students ample time in class to get the assignment done. It would be great to see what future students would think of for their "possible planetary attractions."
ReplyDelete~Jenni