The Magic School Bus Gets Planted

Name: The Magic School Bus Gets Planted
Author: Joanna Cole

A story that explores cooperation and opens a conversation with your child.

★★★★★ Loved by families

Read the Guiding Questions Find this book →

♥ This book teaches: Cooperation. choosing the group over the self.

Before, During & After Reading

Guiding Questions for Parents.

Definition of Cooperation for children for 8 - 11 year olds: Cooperation happens when we work together with a good attitude to achieve the same goal or accomplish a common task. Sometimes it involves being willing to compromise or give something up so that the task can get done. In a nutshell: Together we can do more Summary: Ms. Frizzle takes her class on a field trip to discover how plants make food. Through the interaction of the plant’s resources, water, air, and sunlight, it is able to make its own food. This is an example of cooperation within the natural environment. Lesson Objectives:

Connect this story to a planting activity so students can make observations about cooperation within the growth process.

Guiding Questions:

What motivated the students to explore the insides of a plant?
What did they discover about how the plant gets the water it needs?
Where did they go after exploring what goes on for plants underground?
Would you say a plant breathes?
Where and how does the plant make its food, and what kind of food does it make?
When the plant is brought onto the stage, why does it still struggle to grow?
Do you think any plants can grow as fast as this bean plant grew in the story?
Do you need the same things as plants do in order to be healthy? What is your favorite healthy food?
Plants make their own food. Share about how you get the food you need from where it’s grown to where it’s on your dinner plate.
Name three things you do to keep healthy and why you need to do them.

🌿 Virtue Connection: Cooperation means choosing to contribute to something larger than yourself.

About the Story.

This guide is part of the Values & Virtues library, a free collection of 400+ book guides and activities organized around 12 core virtues for children from pre-K to 6th grade. Each guide includes Guiding Questions designed to open a real conversation with your child in 10 minutes or less.