Of Wizards, Wind, Wings, and Weaning Ourselves Off of "The Magic School Bus" (The Cool(ish) School(ish) Stuff We've Been Up To)

Have you ever looked back over the last several weeks and wondered how is it possible that we've watched every episode of "The Magic School Bus..."  *twice* ?"  I think that you'll probably agree that this is an unfortunate situation in which to find oneself.  Granted, we've learned an awful lot from The Magic School Bus (Netflix and books) but there comes a point when science has to be more than just taking in the adventures of Ms. Frizzle and Class.

We had a pretty wet and rainy week and were inside a lot, but I declared this a No Magic School Bus week and here's what we did instead...

Of Wizards...

The boys have been Wizard of Oz crazy for over a month now.  They've listened to the unabridged audio version, narrated by Anne Hathaway, at least 10 times.  Literally.  It's really a great  recording and I highly recommend it.  She does voices!  

I decided to "run with" their enthusiasm, so we read a biography of author L. Frank Baum, drew pictures of our favorite part of the book, practiced using our chalk pastels to make tornado pictures, watched The Wizard of Oz (I really don't like that movie, but it's one of Russ' favorites, so I gave in), and ate "Emerald City" popcorn.  

The Road to Oz: Twists, Turns, Bumps, and Triumphs in the Life of L. Frank Baum

by Katheleen Krull

Of Wind...

I recently read the  kids an abridged version of Jules Vern's Around the World in 80 Days.  So we watched that movie too (the 1956 David Niven version, a favorite from my own childhood!)  It took us four nights over two weeks to finish it, but it was still fun!  

Yesterday, inspired by the scene in which Fogg, Princess Aouda, Passepartout, and Inspector Fix travel in a railway car rigged with a sail, the boys built Lego cars and experimented with different size sails as we zoomed them across the kitchen floor.  It's science.  (We even weighed the cars on our kitchen scale first to make it even more science-y)

Of Wings...

Monday we periodically checked in at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to see what was going on with the red-tailed hawks via live nest cam...
Thanks to the fabulous and lovely Nella and Heather for reminding me about the Cornell bird cams :)

We saw a lot of interesting activity, including two cute fluffy babies pecking away at each other (as well as at a dead mole/vole (?) thing) and one of the adults eating a rabbit it had brought to the nest.  

two chicks, one egg, adult in left foreground, dead rabbit in right foreground, dead mole/vole (?) thing in right background, unidentified dead animal in background

Since the photo, the last egg has hatched and today we even saw all three little chicks hopping around the nest and being fed by one of the adults!!!!  (teeny little beaks open, bloody raw meat goes in...appetizing.)


Of Weaning Ourselves Off of The Magic School Bus...

Today we did an activity to really, truly get our recent dependence on Ms. Frizzle under control.  Look, it even says so on this bottle...

We made Soft n' Silky Clay following this recipe here.  (all you need are hair conditioner from the Dollar Store and cornstarch)  The kids really loved the clay, much more than play-doh! 

Now, thankfully, everyone is outside doing science experiments involving mud and muddy water, and dirt that will soon be turned into mud.  Lucky me ;)

And that is the end :)