Search - The Magic School Bus - Creepy, Crawly Fun! on DVD

Three Episodes, One Tape

09/14/2001

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This tape consists of three unrelated episodes, two of which are very good. The first is, "Going Batty," which reveals the amazing facts and myths about those wondrous creatures of the night. The second, "Spins a Web," shows us how different spiders hunt and catch their prey and is also very good. The third, "Inside a Haunted House," attempts to explain dynamics of sound on a preschool level. It's a complicated subject that was over simplified. The writers of this episode didn't seem to have a complete grasp of the subject themselves. It's an entertaining story but not as informative as the other videos."

Magic Mixed with Science

Jill Mayfield | San Antonio, Texas United States | 09/13/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The DVD is excellent in teaching scientific facts, for instance, my 3 year old loves the episode on bats, and has learned much from it. (She corrected me when I said bats were blind.) I also give it high marks beause the teacher does not always answer the children's questions, but instead leads them to a situation where they can discover the answers themselves through interaction and experimentation. My only negative comment is to get to the situation always involves some "magical" transformation. It just seemly highly ironic to juxtapose scientific explanations with impossible magical transformations, but the kids love it."

Bats, Spiders and Haunted Houses (Oh My!)

Janet Boyer | Pennsylvania | 06/08/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I homeschool (unschool) my son, and the Magic School Bus series is GREAT for teaching kids science. We have 4 DVD sets and a few VHS's.

If you're unfamiliar with the premise, the central characters are Ms. Frizzle (a teacher), her class, Liz the lizard and the Bus. Ms. Frizzle takes her class on crazy field trips, where Bus--and sometimes the kids!--experience a transformation so they can get closer to the action. (For example, become a bee or turning into water droplets.)

One of our most recent purchases was Creepy, Crawly Fun! and it's excellent as always. These three episodes are:

*Inside the Haunted House - Acoustics and hearing
*Going Batty - Nocturnal creatures and echolocation
*Spins a Web - The life of spiders

There is also a few interactive and DVD-ROM features, by my son hasn't used those.

This CD runs about 90 minutes and is supposedly geared towards children 3-8. Personally, I think the age-appropriate range is more like 6-10 because of the complex concepts introduced.

However, if younger kids enjoy it--more power to them! It certainly can't hurt to introduce science to younger kids if the Magic School Bus holds their interest.

My 8-year old son really enjoys the series now (he didn't get into it when he was younger), so I use the Magic School Bus series to supplement our learning/experimenting with science principles. And, my son seems to love Creepy, Crawly Fun--especially where Ms. Frizzle's voice is distorted!

Also, this would be a great DVD for Halloween time--especially since it's educational!"

MSB Gives me the Creeps !!!

Paul L. Ryan | Mornington, Victoria, Australia | 04/02/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was quite surprised at the quality of the programes, so much infomation on so many levels. Easily digested visually and verbally. It presents facts that are both sound and accurate for the range of age groups specified. As a teacher I can heartily reccommend the Magic School Bus series.
If you want to know more about bugs, bats and spiders this is one to have . I would also reccommend MSB Bugs,Bugs, Bugs!!! which is about Ants, Butterflies and Bees. Both of these DVDs are up to MSB's usual standard of excellence."