Magic School Bus Premier

I took my youngest to the Magic School Bus Premier at the Science Place. We have been anxiously awaiting this premier for the past 3 weeks and finally it has arrived. We have a whole week unit planned for this week around the Magic School Bus, focusing on weather.

Drake on the far left

Of course the first thing you must do when you arrive is tell all about the weather outside! Drake loved this idea so I decided to use it for the upcoming week. We will be recording the weather every day this week on special cards we made and then drawing a picture to go with the card. He's super excited about it.

Cloud Chart

Once we got done telling the world about today's weather we decided to make a cloud chart. Hey, you cannot accurately portrait the weather without one. We used blue paper to represent the sky and then used cotton balls to represent the different types of clouds. He is doing another one this week with his sister as well. To get the clouds to stick we simply used glue.


Cloud making station

No trip down cloud aisle is complete until you drive in your own hot air balloon through the different types of clouds and weather storms! He loved traveling through hurricanes, tornadoes, snow storms, bright sunny days and rain, all in search of clouds.

Ever wonder about thunder and lightning and how to tell them apart? Well we will be focusing on those facts as well this week. I even made these nifty little weather report forms the kids can fill in and "report" the weather to everyone.
" This is _____________ (your name) bringing you the Weather from the Green News Network. _______________ ( wher is your weather?)is being pounded by the biggest hurricane this area has seen in years. _____________ (what do you see?) have been reported. Many residents have declined to leave the city until this _____________ ( how do you feel) storm has passed.

The temperature is ____________ (temp), and the wind is blowing from the _____________ (wind direction) at an amazing ______________ (wind speed) miles per hour. The skies are ____________ (cloud cover), and __________- (rain fall) inches f rain have fallen. This soggy storm should blow over by nightfall, but it will be some time before people here can dry up, clean up, and go back to life as usual. And that's our Green News Network weather report. Stay tuned for the ______________ (kids name) business update."

I got one for each type of weather.

After all that cloud chasing and weather reporting the kids needed some sit down, calm down fun and nothing quite like getting a story read to you by the very own Mrs. Fizzle!
During the coming week we will be reading The Storm Book by Charlotte Zolotow and The Snowy Day by: Jack Keats. My daughter has been working hard at reading the stories, thinking of questions to ask Drake and things to draw to support the book. She LOVES teaching her little brother and weather is one of her favorite subjects. She even made these nifty little weather trackers for them to do daily. All she used was a paper plate, a black marker, a red sheet of construction paper to make the arrow and push pin that folds out in the back. She will have him draw each of the major types of weather (snow, rain, sun, cloudy) and each day they will put the arrow on that days weather. Did I tell you shes the creative one in the family?

Off to the weather broadcasting network we traveled to next to find out all the great ways to broadcast the weather news. Behind them were magnetic temperatures scales, clouds, rain, and snow bubbles they could place over the different parts of the United States. As you can tell we made a small stop at the face painting section for "makeup" before going on the air.

Well that was our day at the Magic School Bus Weather Premier. Hope you enjoyed it and walked away with some great tips to make your own weather week a special one.