Rebecca Carmi

I enjoyed this book for so many reasons. First, it is a chapter book, but it was organized in a fun way that made for easy reading that was also enjoyable. Even though it is a chapter book, each chapter had several pictures in it. It showed the students doing activities with the magnets and it showed Ms. Frizzle being her eccentric self. It helps keep you interested when reading more words than you would in a regular picture book. Second, every chapter also has an example of an exert one of show more the students in the story wrote. For example, Tim wrote a paragraph on why opposites attract and explains the north and south poles. It is a separate piece from the reading so it draws your attention to something else for a moment, but you are still learning new information. It also puts learning into more kid friendly words since the students in the story wrote it themselves. Thirdly, each chapter has a scavenger hunt question that the reader must find the answer to. For example, “When you are lost you look at me. On my face there is an S, W, N, and E. Only with magnetism will I point the right way.” The back of the book tells you all the answers and this is a compass. This is a fun way to keep the reader interacting with the story and it helps apply real world examples to the science topic they are learning about. Fourthly, the story is informational, but is mostly made up of dialogue and the teachers and students exploring in a hands on way. This makes the story easier to follow with and understand even though you are getting a lot of information thrown at you. The chapter book is set up in small paragraphs and makes for a neat and organized story. The big message in this story is to learn all about magnetism like the north and south poles and a magnet’s characteristics. It also teaches students that learning can be fun and teaches teachers how to make topics more hands on for students to enjoy learning. show less

This book was so much fun to read! This is a great tool to use with ELL students because not only is it a quick read, but it also encourages students to try out different activities that are presented in this book. This book is very informational, but it sticks to the story-line format by presenting different information throughout different characters. I read this book with one of my students and he loved the book! He said that he wanted to try some of the activities that he read about at show more home. I was very glad to hear that he loved the book and was ready to try some of these activities. This is a very interactive book for students because it teaches them to try out different real-life experiments and explore magnetism. It was such a great book to read! show less

Intermediate
This is a good example of fantasy because people can not become iron filings and get magnetized but it has been set up so that we believe that Ms. Fizzle and her magic school bus can make it happen. The character of Carlos is really developed through his telling of the story. He is a round character who we knew a good amount about.

This book can be used in so many different ways and throughout multiple grade levels at school. The book can be used for upper elementary grade levels. I loved reading these books when I was a kid and still enjoy reading them because they are just fascinating type books. The Magic school Bus chapter books is a good way to get students interested in science and these chapter books are the best way to do it!!