Pupils, parents enjoy educational journey
BY DAVE BENJAMIN
Staff Writer

DAVE BENJAMIN Haily Maggiore (center rear), the daughter of teacher Stacy Maggiore, portrays the Magic School Bus teacher Miss Frizzle for (l-r) Danielle Edmonds, a kindergartner at the Milford Brook School, David Ryan, a Prep-1 pupil at the Taylor Mills School, and Angela Ryan, a fourth-grader at the Wemrock Brook School, during the Magic School Bus Journey of Science and Art Exploration.

MANALAPAN — Gathering schoolchildren, families and faculty members together for an evening of learning was one objective of the Magic School Bus Journey of Science and Art Exploration.

Milford Brook School second-grade teacher Kelly Decker estimated that more than 300 students and more than 300 parents were involved in the May 16 evening event at the Globar Terrace school.

The journey is based on the “The Magic School Bus” children’s science books.

Decker said she and third-grade teacher Jaime Ochojski worked together to develop and plan the event, along with many staff members, administrators, PTA members and parent volunteers.

“There are about 40 volunteer teachers, administrators and parents working at the event,” Decker said. “At the end everyone will be able to see all of the buses that are decorated.”

Parents and students attended the family event.

“The family involvement training event has become an annual school-wide function that involves parents, students and staff in the entire Manalapan-Englishtown Regional School District,” said Decker. “Each year there has been a different theme and set-up. For instance, one year there was a family math night where parents and children explored mathematics together.”

Decker said the theme this year was a combination of literature, science and art. Students and parents on each grade level were exposed to “The Magic School Bus” books.

“In the classroom, students from each grade level will hear a different science-themed book in the series that relates to the science curriculum they have learned this school year,” said Decker.

Kindergartners heard “The Magic School Bus Gets Cold Feet ... A Book About Warm and Cold Blooded Animals.”

Pupils in grades four, five and six occupied the media center where they heard how the Magic School Bus traveled through the body. In other classrooms, third-graders heard about the solar system, while second-graders were learning about dinosaurs and first-graders were sharing knowledge about the five senses.

“Students will then brainstorm what they learned about in the book,” said Ochojski. “They will then create what they learned through art.”

Students on each grade level get involved with their parents in art-based activities that support the science facts they were exposed to throughout the read-aloud activity. They decorate refrigerator boxes that are made to look like a Magic School Bus and decorate the area around the bus to support the read-aloud.

“They will create a mural, posters and pictures dealing with that context,” Decker said.

“Other children will be writing poems and there are coloring sheets for them to do when they are finished,” said Ochojski. “Kindergart-ners, because they’re smaller and younger, will be putting their hand prints [on the bus].”

Ochojski said this is the first time the teachers are combining science, art and literature.

“Parents are involved by helping their children come up with creative ideas to illustrate what they have learned,” said Ochojski. “They also help out with decorating the buses.”

Funding for the event was provided by the Manalapan-Englishtown Education Association and the New Jersey Education Association.