What would it be like to take a field trip through the solar system? In The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System, Joanna Cole’s lovable super-teacher, Ms. Frizzle, leads her class on one of her signature adventures. The reader journeys with Cole’s well-drawn characters to the sun, the moon, and each planet and then compares the characteristics to all of the other space bodies.
Cole describes,
“Below the clouds, Venus was as dry as a desert. The ground was covered with rocks. And it was HOT! It was about 400 degrees Centigrade! That’s much hotter than an oven baking cookies!”
The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System calls the reader’s attention to many interesting facts about the planets that are fun to learn about. For example, by reading The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System, you will learn that Jupiter is so big that more than one thousand Earths could fit inside it.
Curriculum Connections
This book could be used throughout the elementary school grades to teach about Earth Science and the structure of our solar system. In Virginia, The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System can be used in connection with SOL 4.7 in which students learn the motions of the Earth, moon, and sun. Students learn through this book all about the relationships that the sun and moon have with the planets.
Additional Resources
- A lesson plan that incorporates this book
- A “Planetary Adventure” WebQuest for fifth grade students
- An “Earth and Moon Viewer” including several maps and images of Earth from space
Book: The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System
Author: Joanna Cole
Illustrator: Bruce Degen
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Publication Date: 1990
Pages: 36 pages
Grades: 1-5
ISBN: 0-590-41428-3