What to watch: Magic School Bus Rides Again (Waste Not, Want Not; Season 2, Ep.11)
Where to find it: Netflix
Run time: 25 min
Best for ages: 3 and up
Why We Recommend The Magic School Bus Rides Again
The Magic School Bus Rides Again is an updated version of The Magic School Bus. It brings back old nostalgia of the older show & books that I loved so much as a kid. It is so much fun to see Logan fall in love with this show as well (however he says he likes the new episodes better than the old ones that I use to watch hahaha). In each episode, the students and their teacher go on a journey to explore the answers to different scientific questions. The episode Waste Not, Want Not is about...POOP. The team of kids explores why poop is actually important to our world and the life cycle and how everything works together to bring new life. I love The Magic School Bus Rides again because it gets my son thinking about science and the different experiments and activities he can do. It also ignites his creative thinking because he likes to imagine that he too can go on these crazy magic school bus adventures!
"Compost" Mud Pie
This episode inspires so many opportunities for fun activities with your little ones. You can go out and explore mud outside and make real mud pies, you can go for a walk and talk about the plants growing in your neighborhood and what helps their lifecycle. However, we were having a bit of a sweet tooth and wanted to make something yummy so we went with a "Compost" Mud Pie!
Estimated activity time: 30 minutes +
Materials needed:
Pre-made pie crust (you can also make this in cups without crust)
Instant Pudding Package (we used the Jello brand)
Milk
Oreos
Gummy Critters! (We used gummy worms but you can get creative)
Directions: Bake pre-made (we used store bought) pie crust according to directions.
While that is cooking make instant pudding according to directions. The Jello brand we bought just needed milk and stirring for about 10 minutes. Place Oreos in a bag and use a rolling pin or wooden spoon to smash the Oreos (beware little hands may help themselves to cookies during this process!)
Once the pie crust was done and cooled for a few minutes, we started to assemble our Mud Pie. We added the pudding, then sprinkled the Oreos. We decided to get a little messy hiding our worms that help decompose our "waste material."
As we assembled our "Compost" Mud Pie we discussed some of the following:
How did the waste (aka poop) in the show help other living things on the planet? (Food for bugs; break down into the soil for plants)
How does the "waste" work in the life cycle of plants?
After all the talk about poop, we enjoyed our not too nutritious compost mud pie like we were plants :)
Share the fun you are having with us on Social Media! Tag us @curiouscouchpotatoes when you try any of our activities.
Educational Insights:
Not only is this a great activity to discuss the scientific topic addressed in The Magic School Bus, it is also a great opportunity for your children to practice pouring and measuring. Pouring, scooping, and leveling ingredients are all great for their fine motor skills as well as their visual skills! It is also a great way of introducing math concepts through measuring. You can use language such as more or less for younger kids and with older kids discuss how many cups or fraction of cups needed in the recipe.