The Magic School Bus Hops Home: A Book About Animal Habitats

Magic School Bus TV Tie-Ins

by Patricia Relf, Nancy Stevenson (Illustrator)

When a bullfrog hops out of the classroom window, Ms. Frizzle and her students take a wild ride from a frog's-eye-view to learn about animal habitats in a book that complements the new PBS animated series. Original. TV tie-in.

Genres: Science, Picture Books, Childrens, Animals, Nonfiction, Kids, School

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Ali Book&Seaglasshunter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This magic school bus book explores habitats. Wanda’s pet frog escapes and the class sets out to find her. Magic school bus books are great attention getters for kids, they are fun and a little silly with some educational stuff sprinkled in rather than text book type educational reading. I like that the end includes letter to the editor to make it clear that some parts of the book are make believe. Great for preschool-2nd graders.

[Deania · Rating 4 out of 5]

I grew up with The Magic School Bus when I was a kid. You learn about different things and you get to use your imagination as you read the book to travel. You travel to different areas and get to learn about habitats. Not only should someone read the books,but also get the shows to watch. However, using your imagination is much better.

[Ari]

The book begins with what the students did last week. Wanda brought her best friend Bella the Bullfrog to school. Mrs. Frizzle asks what a bullfrog needs in their home or habitat. Then Bella hopped out the window! So of course the class went on a field trip to go find her. The school bus shrank and the class hopped through the woods to catch Bella. The class hiked and hiked through many different environments. One belonged to beavers and a blue heron. When they went to go see the blue heron the class found Bella but it was about to EAT Bella. Bella got away just in time. then came another frog. The frogs were communicating and sure enough, the class found out that Bella had a friend! Wanda decided to leave Bella with her friend.

[Ms. McKelvie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book explores animal habitats. Like all Magic School Bus books, this would tie great into content or lessons about the topic. In this case, possibly a unit about animals or animal habitats. I feel that it could be used for a wide range of grades, just adapt conversations and extension activities based on level.
Some tie in activity ideas could be to create a habitat for an animal. As with any book in this series, there could be a cool STEAM activity that involved creating a design for the bus on either this trip or one of their own inventing.
Grades: 1-4

[Andrea L’Ecuyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this would be great to incorporate into a science lesson about animal habitats. I loved that the class would be able to understand that each animal needs different items or spaces to live and survive effectively. However, I wish they would have discussed more habitats than the 2 that they discussed in the book.

[Grace]

I really enjoy how this book promotes critical thinking. A habitat is not just water, food, air - but slow moving water, safety from becoming the food source, etc... Also rich illustrations that allow children to explore more than the story (helpful when read repetitively...)

[Katie Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun series of books to use to introduce science topics.

[K Morlando · Rating 5 out of 5]

We love the magic school bus series of books, they are very educational!

[Emily Sharpe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book, read it with the kids during Hurricane Helene virtual days. Always a good way to introduce scientific concepts to kids.

[Sierra · Rating 5 out of 5]

an excellent story on ecosystems and being a friend!!

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

My generic review of the Magic School Bus books -

We really love the series. This book doesn't have all the cartoony dialouge asides that the earlier books have. There are maybe a comment or two per page instead of full conversations. Some people hate that; I think I prefer it. The page is less busy.

These books clearly explain a certain topic. There are often additional activities at the end of the book for further learning.

We read these for 'fun' during picture book time and we read them when learning about a certain subject.

Most of the books have movies which correspond. We've enjoyed those as well.

[Dolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun book about animals and their habitats, mainly centered around a frog named Bella. The class loses Wanda's pet bullfrog and goes on a field trip to find her. What they discover is that she's found the perfect environment to live in and that she's better off in the wild. I like that they released her - I'm always trying to convince our girls to release the critters they catch!

Overall, a fun book to read aloud and we look forward to reading more books in the Magic School Bus series!

[Molly Robbins · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Magic School Bus books are always going to be a crowd pleaser for your students. Obviously they are a perfect tool when implementing a science lesson. This would be good when teaching your older grades about earth science, and different animal habitats. You could create a whole unit off of this one book, reading it throughout the week and having the students research and explore different animal habitats for themselves.

[Little Miss and the Legomeister · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the Magic School Bus books. I've read quite a few over the years. Legomeister loved them a couple of years ago. He still checks them out sometimes, but he doesn't ask me to read them to him anymore. Now it's Little Miss who requests them.

Wanda releases her bullfrog into its natural habitat.

[Jelisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book to teach science material. Specifically ecosystems, and habitats. I could use this book in the classroom to allow children to read about how certain animals are able to survive in certain climates and why. I could have the students do a hands on project that allows them to create their own ecosystem/habitat out of shoeboxes and various materials.

[Stephanie K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little girl brought her pet bullfrog to school and he hoped out of the window. The teacher Mrs. Frizzle took the class on a field trip on their magic school bus. While they looking for Bella they went met other animlas. Bella met another bullfrog and Wanda thought the forrest will be a great place for Bella.



lesson: circle story- discuss what occurred in the story

[Amy Olson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Magic School Bus book series are great double duty books that work in literacy and in science! The Magic School Bus Hops home explores animal habitats in kid friendly writing. Common reading strategies like predicting, doing a picture walk, inferring etc. can all be incorporated in this book.

[Kelly Whelchel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Science Content Grade 2 Fiction Topic: Frog and its habitat

Great book to talk about the frogs habitat and about them. Can make a graph chart with things that can be found in a frogs habitat. Possible introduce a pet from for the classroom.

[Theresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

learn about animals in this science supplements for the classroom

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picture Book 28
The Magic School Bus book series are great resources to have in the classroom. This particular one is great to use when teaching the different habitats.

[Tracey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! Plan to use in my classroom!

[Cheyenne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book for animal habitats.

[Lizbeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

how to read

[Rachelolivia]

II

[Peyton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A classic retelling of the magic school bus, but this one has all of the elements, with a tv show tie in to go with it which promotes the use of multiple literacy types.

[Horace Mann Family Reading Challenge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ms. frizzle teachs about frogs. A.

[Belinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very educational, I loved all the Magic School Bus books as a kid and my girls enjoy it now!