The Magic School Bus in the Haunted Museum: A Book about Sound

This is a great book to use when you are teaching students about sound. I read it to my third graders during the standardized unit on "sound." They loved the way the author combined entertainment with information. After I read the book to the children, I put it in the classroom library. Even my lower level readers were eager to check the book out and read it for themselves.

This title is a good choice for introducing children to Ms. Frizzle and her class of diverse personalities. Kids learn from this book that we hear sound when objects vibrate and that sound is dampened when vibration is hindered. Eventually the class dons magic glasses that allow them to see soundwaves. The students notice that higher sounds have waves that are close together whereas lower sounds have waves spread much further apart. The concepts aren't difficult to grasp and the plot is entertaining. This book became an instant favorite of my daughter when she was two and a half years old. It still interests both my son and daughter now that they are five and a half and three and a half respectively. They love reading the noises in the spooky forest where the bus grinds to a halt outside the museum and they never tire of hearing sounds emanating from the audible books inside the museum. The straightforward science and noisy read make this a great introductory title. Once children are familiar with Ms. Frizzle hook them with other Magic School Bus books where the morphing antics of the bus play a more central role. An animation of MSB in the Huanted Museum is also available.