Lesson #2 Title:  The Magic School Bus Spins a Web

Grade Level:  4-5

National Science Education Standards

Content Standard A: As a result of activities in grades K-5, all students should develop abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry and understand about scientific inquiry.
Content Standard C:  As a result of activities in grades K-5, all students should develop understanding of the characteristics of organisms, life cycles of organisms, and organisms and their environments.
Content Standard G: As a result of activities in grades K-5, all students should develop understanding of science as a human endeavor.

Michigan Curriculum Framework Standards/Benchmarks

Science:

  • Strand I; Content Standard 1, Benchmark 4

  • Strand I; Content Standard 2, Benchmarks 1, 2, 3, 4

  • Strand I; Content Standard 3, Benchmark 8

English Language Arts:

  • Strand I; Content Standard 1, Benchmarks 1-5

  • Strand I; Content Standard 3, Benchmarks 1, 5, 6

  • Strand V; Content Standard 7, Benchmarks 1, 2

 

Michigan Technology Education Standards

Technology Standard 1:  Students demonstrate a sound understanding of the nature and operation of technology systems and are proficient in the use of technology.
Technology Standard 2:  Students understand the ethical, cultural, and societal issues related to technology. Students practice responsible use of technology systems, information, and software. Students develop positive attitudes toward technology uses that support lifelong learning, collaboration, personal pursuits, and productivity.
Technology Standard 3:  Students use technology tools to enhance learning, increase productivity, and promote creativity. Students use productivity tools to collaborate in constructing technology-enhanced models, prepare publications, and produce other creative works.

Materials:
  • The Magic School Bus Spins a Web (3-5 copies)
  • The Magic School Bus Spins a Web video clip and VHS or DVD video
  • Computers connected to the Internet and equipped with word processing software
  • Digital Camera

Lesson Objectives:

  • The students will read aloud The Magic School Bus Spins A Web as if it were a play with assigned roles.
  • The students will use the Internet to research the spiders described in the story

Procedure:

Purpose:  The students will learn to read on queue when reading assigned roles aloud; this ensures all students follow along, and boosts comprehension and reading for meaning.

Anticipatory Set:  The teacher shows a short clip of The Magic School Bus Spins a Web using an LCD projector.

Modeling/Guided Practice:  The teacher assigns reading roles and models how to read your lines without reading those of the narrator; the teacher conducts a brief minilesson of beginning and end quotation marks, so the students know when it is their turn to start and stop reading.

The reading rolesare:  Ms. Frizzle, Phoebe, Carlos, Dorothy Ann, Keesha, Liz, Ralphie, Wanda, Tim, General Araneus, Praying Mantis, and spiders.  The last two characters do not have any lines, but they are important characters!
 

Checking for Understanding:  The teacher allows the students to practice reading their roles in small groups before the group read-aloud begins.

Independent Practice:  Students will read The Magic School Bus Spins a Web as a group; the students will use the Schoolnotes website to research the types of spiders presented in the book using the teacher posted research links:

          Spider Home page

Argiopes From the USA

Spiders of North-West Europe

Discovery Online, Expeditions Spiders!

The Queensland Museum Explorer

Westside Spidermania

Tarantualas@nationalgeographic.com

My Tarantula Collection

Nick's Spiders

Pictures of Spiders

Closure Activity:  Students will watch the full video of The Magic School Bus Spins a Web.

Extension:  Geometry in everyday life/spider web geometry- When you are outside looking for spiders and related items, take special notice of spider webs.  Use a digital cameral or regular camera to take pictures of the spider webs.  Look at the spider webs.  What parts of geometry are included in the web(s).  The concept of shape, radius, diameter, pi and much more can be discussed, depending on the spider web. To extend this activity, measure several different circular items and find the radius and diameter.

Assessment of Objectives/Evaluation:

  • The teacher will monitor the read aloud, and note student participation.
  • The teacher will monitor students as they navigate the posted links on the Schoolnotes website.
  • The teacher will give the students a quiz to assess comprehension of the story.