The Magic School Bus- Lost in the Solar System

Author: Joanna Cole

Illustrator: Bruce Degen

Genre: Non-Fiction

Cole, Joanna, and Bruce Degen. The Magic School Bus: Lost in the Solar System. New York:
           Scholastic, 2010. Print.

Annotation
The field trip to the planetarium is foiled when the museum turns out to be closed. Ms. Frizzle saves the day. The Magic School Bus turns into a spaceship and takes the class on a trip through the atmosphere, to the moon, and beyond!

ELA Content Standards

Key Ideas and Details- Grade 3

Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.

How it Connects: Student can ask the teacher any questions they have about the atmosphere, and the teacher can help the students go back into the text to find the answers.

Key Ideas and Details- Grade 3 

Describe characters in a story (traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.

How it Connects: Students can use anchor charts to write down the traits of the different characters, and how each character feels throughout the story (how the characters feel when they find out the museum is closed, and how they feel when the Magic School Bus turns into a spaceship).

Tier 3 Vocabulary

Planetarium, foiled, atmosphere

Classroom Usage

Small Groups: Students can split up into groups and work together to draw what they picture the  atmosphere to look like, and label the planets and objects the draw (anchor chart).

Differentiation
This book would be good for ELL because it introduces them to new vocabulary they may not have heard before, and helps them work on their comprehension.