The Magic School Bus: Lost in the Solar System

The Magic School Bus: Lost in the Solar System

By: Joanna Cole

Illustrated by: Bruce Degen

Genre: Fantasy/ Science Fiction

Grade Level: K-5

            How exciting would it be to be learning about a specific topic in science and be able to literally go and explore it?  For example, let’s say you were learning about dinosaurs and you actually went back in time to the dinosaur’s life time, all by getting on a bus.  I know one things for sure; I would definitely find science more interesting if that were the case.  Well in Ms. Frizzle’s classroom that’s exactly what happens.  In The Magic School Bus: Lost in the Solar System, the students board the magical school bus to go on a field trip, but it’s not just any old field trip.

            The Magic School Bus: Lost in the Solar System, starts off by the class discussing the solar system, such as, what’s an orbit? Or what makes day and night?  Ms. Frizzle then decides to take her students on a field trip to the planetarium.  When they arrive there it’s closed because they are doing repairs.  So now the students are expecting to go back to school but blast off the bus turns into a spaceship and they are blasted to the moon.  They go through outer space learning about the moon, craters, meteorites, all the planets (by going to each one), why their weightless in space, and much more.  This adventure through the solar system is exciting for the students and they are sure to never forget.  Therefore, learning so much and taking in what they learned.  Who wouldn’t remember learning about the solar system if you learned about it the way Ms. Frizzle’s class did?

            This story is a science fiction story.  In this book the events are imaginative but accurate.  The story begins in the real world, the classroom, and then it takes the reader to outer space.  The readers are taken on an adventure with the class through outer space and they are also learning important facts about the solar system.  For children reading this book it can be exciting for them because their imagination gets going and they start wondering how cool it would be if they got to go on field trips like that.  They want to keep reading because the book keeps them on their toes and their intrigued to find out the final outcome.  I think the Magic School Bus series are excellent for children to read or for you to read to your class because there are a lot of educational facts to them and at the same time they are taken on an adventure.  The author uses plenty of appropriate language that is also believable for the reader and it is consistent throughout the whole story.  The illustrations throughout the book are also eye catching for the readers as well.  These books can be used when you are teaching your class about those topics in science.

MA ELA Frameworks

2.1 Contribute knowledge to class discussion in order to develop a topic for a class project.

5.2 Recognize that the names of things can also be the names of actions (fish, dream, run).

5.3 Identify correct capitalization for names and places (Janet, I, George Washington, Springfield), and correct capitalization and commas in dates (February 24, 2001).

5.4 Identify appropriate end marks (periods, question marks).

       *7.1 Demonstrate understanding of the forms and functions of written English:

·         recognize that printed materials provide information or entertaining stories;

·         know how to handle a book and turn the pages;

·         identify the covers and title page of a book;

·         recognize that, in English, print moves left to right across the page and from top to bottom;

·         identify upper- and lower-case letters;

·         recognize that written words are separated by spaces;

·         recognize that sentences in print are made up of separate words.

8.6 Make predictions about what will happen next in a story, and explain whether they were confirmed or 

      disconfirmed and why.

8.7 Retell a story’s beginning, middle, and end.

8.8 Distinguish cause from effect.

10.2 Distinguish among forms of literature such as poetry, prose, fiction, nonfiction, and drama and apply this knowledge as a strategy for reading and writing.