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Planning and Announcing Your Party
- First, schedule the date and decide how long you want the party to be. We suggest an hour, maybe slightly longer.
- Reproduce the downloadable INVITATION below, and send them to your family and friends.
Get this Party Off the Ground!
- Decorate with colourful balloons and streamers. Be creative!
- When the guests arrive, pass out the downloadable NAME TAGS below. Have tape and markers handy.
- Serve refreshments! We suggest cloud cookies (sugar cookies or even animal crackers), tornado tea (any kind of juice), and, of course, Ms. Frizzle’s Magic School Bus Surprise! We don’t know what it is, but we know no party would be complete without it. (In order words, use your imagination! Why should the guests have all the fun?)
- It’s hurricane time! The Magic School Bus is turning into a hot-air balloon, and everyone can decorate it. You can also help Ms. Frizzle’s wardrobe become even more outrageous! Pass out crayons or coloured pencils and copies of the downloadable BALLOON colourING SHEET below.
- How do we get information about hurricanes? With the weather plane! Show everyone how to make (and decorate) their own paper airplanes. Then line everybody up for an airplane-throwing contest. Whose weather plane flies the farthest? If you like, award a small prize to the winner.
- Copy the downloadable PUZZLE PAGE and SCHOOL BUS colourING SHEET below for party games!
Science Activities
For something extra, try two of Ms. Frizzle’s Favourite experiments -- straight from the pages of The Magic School Bus Inside a Hurricane!
See Hot Air Rise
How did The Magic School Bus get off the ground? In a balloon - a hot air balloon! To demonstrate how hot air rises, you’ll need paper, needle and thread, and a small lamp (without a shade) that can be plugged in on the floor or a low table.
- Cut a spiral out of paper.
- With the needle and thread, attach a string to the top (small end) of the spiral.
- Hold the spiral (by the thread) over the light bulb. The warm air will rise and make the spiral spin!
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Make a Twister in a Bottle
Get some clear bottles from the local recycling centre (bring them back there later) or ask your guests to bring their own. Then have each guest follow these easy steps (one or two kids at a time will be best):
- Fill a bottle 2/3 full of water. (Add food colouring for extra effect!)
- Hold bottle over sink.
- Cover opening with one hand and turn bottle upside down.
- Move bottle rapidly in a circle.
- Stop circling. Take hand away from opening.
- See a twister in the bottle as water runs out!
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Fun and Games
Hurricane Tag
Remind your guests that hurricanes start out small, as tropical storms, and get bigger and faster as they travel away from the equator. Choose one kid to be IT (the tropical storm) and let the others run away as in a game of tag. Whoever is tagged, however, then holds hands with the first kid , becoming part of IT and turning the tropical storm into a hurricane! Now two kids do the tagging, and as more children are added, the hurricane gets bigger (although only two kids at a time will have their hands free to tag others). The last kid tagged is the winner, and can be the tropical storm for the start of the next game.
Make a Rainstorm
Have the kids stand in a row or a circle, and explain the motions they’ll be doing to simulate the stages of a rainstorm. Start with rubbing hands together: first point to one kid to begin, then to another and another until everyone is doing the same thing. Then indicate a kid to switch to rhythmic finger-snapping. While the group continues to rub hands, first one kid and then another will start snapping until, once again, everyone is doing the same thing. In the same way, move on to leg-slapping and lastly foot-stomping, before following the same steps in reverse. Tell the kids to listen - only if there’s no talking will they hear the real sounds of a storm!
Be Ready for Anything!
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