Teachers@Random

Read the prologue and explain what kinds of adventures Jack and Annie have been on before. What does the word mythical mean? What adventures were mythical for them and which ones were from actual history? How do you know the difference?

Ask students: Have you ever read a Magic Tree House book before? How does the magic in the story work? Do Jack and Annie ever get in trouble at home for their adventures far away? How do they get back in forth in time? Where would you like to go if you could visit any place in history?

Have students fill out a KWL (Know, Want to Know, Learned) Chart based on the book.

Lead a class walk in a nature area or display a wildlife photograph ( National Geographic magazines are ideal) that will inspire students to write a haiku like Basho.

Haiku is a traditional three-line Japanese poem that consists of counted syllables: five for the first line, seven for the second, and five again for the third. It often gives a hint to the season or reflects on nature. Haiku is always created by close observation.

Have the class research and read other books written by these great Japanese poets of Japan : Basho, Buson, Issa, Izumi Shikibu, Ono No Komachi. Then, find your favorite haiku and illustrate it using a piece of poster board. These pieces can be displayed to create an entire hall of haiku.

Sal Murdocca, the illustrator of Dragon of the Red Dawn, creates pictures with fascinating detail about Japan . In addition, he plays with the perspective (or view) of his topic. (Look on p. 64 for a terrific aerial view of Basho’s home.) Have students sketch their own scene from ancient Japan from at least two different perspectives, trying to show as much detail as they can on the topics of food, dress, architecture, or entertainment. Encourage them to share their sketches with a partner.

Perspectives to explore: from the sky or ceiling, child level, bottom up, widescreen, zoom in, landscape, or portrait.

Prepared by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer, a reading specialist and children’s author.

Discuss with your students: How do you know if a book is a fantasy or if it is realistic fiction? What clues does the author give? Do you read these two kinds of books differently? How? How do you know if something is real or imaginary?

Blizzard of the Blue Moon has many beautiful images: from a snowy New York City to a unicorn tapestry at the Cloister’s Museum. Have students create a collage of buildings using a wide variety of papers (newsprint, construction paper, even wrapping paper) that run an entire length of a wall (or hallway). Then, add students’ haiku snowflakes from the Blizzard Haiku printer-friendly activity sheet to the top of the mural.

Remind your students that a haiku is a traditional three-line Japanese poem, which consists of counted syllables: five for the first line, seven for the second, and five again for the third. Haiku often gives a hint to the season or reflects on nature so it is a perfect fit for this classroom environment.

Have students create illustrated brochures with facts about New York City . They may use the ones that Jack reads aloud in the novel as long as they also do research and add at least five new facts. The brochures can highlight any of the topics from the book: museums, history, parks, city transportation, or the Rockefellers.

Activities prepared by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer, a reading specialist and author of the

A magician is defined as someone with “an extraordinary power or influence” (Merriam Webster). The four men who are the magicians in this story each developed something that was an engineering advance. Discuss with students how the inventions of Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, and Louis Pasteur still influence their lives today, focusing on why the men were viewed as magicians.

Have students write an update to these men, indicating how their own lives are better because of their inventiveness. Encourage them to use a news story format to describe how the invention played a role in a situation in their lives. Remind them to include the who, what, where, when, why, and how of the story and how the inventor’s achievements started it all.

A world’s fair is an exposition of new products and inventions. Stage a “world’s fair” in your classroom where students reveal the products they use. Have them research the origin of the product and make a display highlighting the product’s history and uses. Encourage them to identify a new way that others can use the specific product. Some products include televisions, telephones, automobiles, bicycles, backpacks, etc.

A world’s fair is also an exposition of cultures from around the world. Have students research their cultural backgrounds and identify something to share that is a part of their family heritage. They then make a display featuring the tradition and item, and explain why it is important to the specific culture and to the rest of the world.

Since new inventions were highlighted at the world’s fair, challenge students to invent something they think would be useful. They can make a model or draw a picture of a prototype of their invention, and demonstrate its use. Encourage them to plan a presentation that would convince the other students that they need this new invention.

Jack and Annie travel to Paris in 1889. Have students use the information in this book and do other research to identify the sites and activities that made Paris so special in the late 19th century. Then have them make a travel brochure encourage others to visit the city.

A trifold format for the brochure might include a picture of the most significant feature of Paris in 1889 on the outside front cover; a description of the unique cultural aspects (food, entertainment, art, shopping) on the inside left flap; main 1889 Paris attractions to visit on the inside center; a possible three-day itinerary on the inside right cover; and a description on how to travel to Paris (with illustrations) on the back cover.

Readers who travel to 1889 Paris with Jack and Annie can send a postcard home. Have them draw a Parisian scene on one side of a 5" x 8" file card. Divide the back side of the card into two sections for a message to a friend or family member about their trip on the left side, and the address on the right side.

Each of the magicians in this story had a secret. Make a magic hat for each magician from a gallon ice cream container. Cover the container with black construction paper, and make a construction paper brim to attach to the top (opening) of the container. Write one of the magician’s magic secrets on each hat along with the magician’s name:

Then, as students do something that reflects one of these magic secrets, they write a description of the situation on a construction paper rabbit with their name on the reverse side. On a regular basis pull a rabbit out of the magician’s hat, and ask the students to share their magical moment with others.

Guide prepared by Dr. Peggy A Sharp, a national children's literature consultant.

The Bedouins believed that knowledge belongs to all and that wisdom is to be shared. Wisdom is defined as accumulated learning (Merriam-Webster). Ask students to identify a piece of wisdom they have gained and then brainstorm ways to spread the wisdom—e.g., writing about it, talking about it, demonstrating it.

Dates are a very important and popular food of the desert. For more information about this important food source, visit the All About Dates Web site. Bring in several different types of dates for students to sample, including dates in their natural form, date ice cream, date nut bread, date shakes, and other foods that include dates. Have students identify which dates they prefer, and graph their preferences.

Students can better understand how long it takes to accomplish tasks by using a sand timer. Have the students determine/watch how long it takes for the sand to flow through the timer. Then have them predict how many times they can do a variety of actions in the time it takes for the sand to flow from the top to the bottom of the timer. Some possible activities include jumping, standing and sitting, reading pages, doing math problems, and writing words.

Compare their predictions with the actual number of actions accomplished. Discuss how the knowledge that they were being timed influenced their reactions and feelings, and whether speed is the only determining factor in accomplishment.

A metaphor used in this story is the camel as the ship of the desert. Discuss the meaning of this metaphor with your class and why it is appropriate. Have students draw a literal interpretation of this metaphor. Finally, have students come up with their own metaphors and use them in the context of a short story. You may want to start them off with a few ideas: “My brother is a hog at the dinner table ” or “My sister is a mule when it comes to bedtime.”

Guide prepared by Dr. Peggy A Sharp, a national children's literature consultant.

About the book

Merlin is not well and he needs Jack and Annie’s help to discover the four secrets to happiness from one of the world’s most creative people that ever lived, Leonardo Da Vinci. Jack and Annie explore Florence , Italy 500 years ago and apprentice with Leonardo for a day. Can they keep him from hurting himself as he tries out his great flying machine? Will he discover more about happiness as one of his own paintings is destroyed?

Pre-Reading Activities

Read the prologue and explain what kinds of adventures Jack and Annie have been on before. Will this be a mythical journey or a historical one? What is the difference between the two?

Have you ever read a Magic Tree House book before? How does the magic in the story work? Do Jack and Annie ever get in trouble at home for their adventures far away? How do they move across time and place? If you could go anywhere in history, where would you land?

What is a “mad genius”? What does it mean to be a genius at something? Can you brainstorm a list of people who are considered geniuses in the following fields: music, art, history, science, literature? Predict what the children might learn from Leonardo about happiness.

Questions for Class Discussion

Great readers make connections to what they’re reading. As students read the novel have them write down any connections they make—between other books, things in their lives, and things in the world— they make that will help them remember what the book is about. You may want to use a graphic organizer like the one below.

Activities prepared by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer, a reading specialist and author of the

Vocabulary

Ask students to identify unfamiliar words and write definitions taking clues from the context of the research guide. Such words may include: Renaissance, patron, palazzi, cathedral, dome, merchant, wares, utensils, guild / trade, apprentice, reputation, Latin, anatomy, dissect, botanist, fossil, sfumato, basilica, architect, musician, statesmen, mathematician, philosopher

Below is a list of ideas to pick and choose from. It is a nice opportunity to show and use the different levels of thinking from Bloom’s Taxonomy.

For more independent students: Find someone local who has a specific hobby or interest. Interview them to find out how they became hooked on what they do.
(This can also be done via e-mail or over the phone.)

More complex: Explain the advantages or disadvantages between then and now.

Synthesis

Why did people not recognize Leonardo's genius or his contribution to society while he was alive? Are there others who also have been more appreciated after their death than during their life?

Evaluation

According to his notebooks, Leonardo did not always agree with the popular beliefs of the time. What kinds of things did he disagree with? Leonardo had a choice about how much he would try to convince others that he was right. Do you think he made the right choices during his lifetime? Why do we believe him today if they didn't believe him when he was alive? One example would be the issue of how fossils got to Italy —was it a flood or a reorganization of land?
Da Vinci said, “Always be eager to hear the opinions of others." In many cases, his interest in what others had to say helped him make friends and have lively conversations. How could his statement backfire and cause him problems? Is there another statement that you can think of that could have a positive or a negative affect? Do you think it is wise to use suggestions that could be both positive and negative? Explain your thinking.
War was "beastly madness" according to da Vinci. Why did he choose to make money by painting war scenes? Were his plans effective? Do you agree with his choice?

More complex: Argue both sides of this issue.

The number of projects Leonardo completed was much smaller than those he started. What does this say about him? Why was he comfortable not finishing projects?

Communication

The Market on Monday

The marketplace in Leonardo da Vinci's time was a busy place. It must have been chaotic and interesting to watch from afar. Have students imagine they were in the marketplace. What might they hear? Have them create a script from the marketplace. Share it with the class.

Simpler: Have a two-person conversation. Make sure they talk about what kind of work they do and why they are at the market today.

More complex: Include three to five characters in the conversation. Make sure it is clear what kind of work they do and why they are at the marketplace today. You may describe the work they do in word or in sound (to make it something the listener figures out).

Most complex: The script can include multiple characters. They do not all have to be human. If you use animals, make sure we get to hear what they are thinking or seeing. Describe the sights, sounds, smells, and what brought each character to the market today.

Careers

Hire Me!

Have students create an advertisement that Leonardo could have used in order to find a patron.

Simpler: List five of Leonardo's interests or skills.

More complex: Add three of the things Leonardo da Vinci claimed he could do. Include sketches that would catch the attention of a rich patron.

Most complex: Instead of an advertisement, create a resume, speech, or brochure that Leonardo could have used when seeking a patron. Include information about his skills, interests, knowledge, personality, and travels, if you'd like.

As a teacher, you might need to assist students in identifying interests, skills, or projects. Here are a number of specifics from the research guide:

Interests

art, designing buildings and cities (architecture), inventing, flying, science, anatomy, math, Latin, music, cooking, telling jokes, surprising people

Skills

Artist: sketching, sculpture, painting

Inventor: flying machines, canals, buildings, bridges, perfect city, contact lenses, shoes for walking on water, diving suits, life preservers, webbed swimming gloves, armored cars, the double-hulled boat, the submarine, paddle boat, crossbow, triple barrel cannon, a slingshot for cannons, multi-barrel machine guns, missiles, grenades, the parachute, ornithopter, helicopter, glider

Musician: designed instruments, played the lyre, sang, wrote music

Scientist: studied anatomy, rocks, fossils, plants, water pressure, storms and weather, the moon and its effect on the tides

Teacher

Cook

He was generally well liked by friends and artists. It seems he treated people well.

Other claims "I can . . . " drain water from ditches, build cannons, protect warships, destroy forts, build armored cars, and do anything else you ask me to do.

Check out these corresponding activity sheets:

Remember Me This Way

Remember Me This Way: Answer Key

Tossing and Turning

Where Did That Come From?

Hire Me!

Prepared by Beth Fawley, the 2006 Magic Tree House Educator of the Year, who is the K–12 Gifted and Talented Coordinator at Columbia Heights Public Schools in Minnesota.

Have the class create a thesaurus for words used in Dark Day in the Deep Sea . Some of the commonly misunderstood words are listed below, and there are a few options as to how to present this task to students:

Simple: Prior to reading, give students the basic words on the left. Have them work in groups to list at least three thesaurus entries to go along with each starter word. (You can have students actually use a thesaurus if this is difficult to do based on prior knowledge.) While reading Dark Day in the Deep Sea , point out the more complex words ( sorrow, gawking, etc.) and have the students record them with the starter words.

More Complex: Prior to reading, give students the basic words on the left. Allow them to list as many thesaurus options for the simple words. Challenge them to find complex words in Dark Day in the Deep Sea that could be added to the thesaurus they’ve started. This can be broken down into more manageable parts by doing this one chapter at a time.

Create a class glossary to define the following words used in Dark Day in the Deep Sea: dredging, grudgingly, capsize, vigorously, nausea, species/specimen, squall, wardroom, scurvy, and harpoon.

To add complexity, offer to let students define these words using context clues instead of defining the words for them. Have students check their context-clue guesses with the actual definition of the words above.

Highlight the uses of personification in Dark Day in the Deep Sea. Have students find more examples of personification in the text or in other reading material. Give them the opportunity to find and illustrate the personification examples. This could be an illustration of the waves rising and falling, or a wave actually holding a hammer. . .

• Jack and Annie learn to conquer fear through knowledge, or through compassion. Give an example of how you have conquered fear through knowledge. Give an example of how you have conquered fear through compassion. Do you think one way to conquer fear is better than the other?

• What do you think would have happened if Jack had not been seasick during the storm?

Prepared by Beth Fawley, the 2006 Magic Tree House Educator of the Year, who is the K–12 Gifted and Talented Coordinator at Columbia Heights Public Schools in Minnesota.

Here are words to teach before students read Sea Monsters or to highlight while they are reading: carnivore, nocturnal, marine, prey, hoax, and legend

Explain how rumors begin and grow by telling the story of an imaginary sighting of an unfamiliar animal as a group. Each child adds a sentence to the story aloud. This may be a good point for discussion in the classroom about how people can easily create gossip that may or may not be true.

As a class, calculate the expenses associated with a deep-sea expedition to find out more about the creatures that live in the ocean. Next create an opportunity for students to test the method used by scientists in measuring the depth of the ocean. To accomplish this, have students create a sort of fishing pole by cutting a long piece of string, tying it to the end of a stick, and tying a small weighted object to the other end of the string. Then ask students to measure the string as closely as possible from the tip of the stick to the bottom of the weighted object. Tip a table over on its side (it must be tall enough that the people performing the demonstration wouldn’t be able to see over it). Set several different boxes on the other side of the table to create different “depths” to measure. To measure each depth, students should lower their poles over the table until they reach the “ocean floor,” and then subtract the length of string that stays “above water” (above the table) from the full length of the string. Have students record their measurements on a chart and compare their results to the actual depth measurements, which they can find using a ruler. This activity can be conducted as a teacher-led demonstration, or as a problem-solving puzzle for students to solve on their own.

To increase difficulty: The teacher models, the students observe and then imitate.

To increase difficulty further: The teacher describes the task, the students create.

Using the descriptions provided in Sea Monsters , set the students to task creating their own 3-D version of a sea creature. You may choose to require students to create animals to scale, or add their imagination to the task, as not all animals are well known, even to aquatic explorers and scientists.

The piecemeal information we know about sea creatures often leaves us feeling like Picasso. Using images of Picasso’s work, challenge the students to create a sea monster in the spirit of Picasso on paper.

Prepared by Beth Fawley, the 2006 Magic Tree House Educator of the Year, who is the K–12 Gifted and Talented Coordinator at Columbia Heights Public Schools in Minnesota.

Have students locate word pictures in the text. An example could be “a carpet of fallen leaves,” or “the big penguins looked like a committee of little men in black suits.” Discuss how authors use words to create a feeling or appeal to the senses.

Sequence the events in the story. Have students differentiate between the real and the imaginary portions of the story.

Research and compare heights of famous mountains using a graph or drawing on graph paper. Decide if you want students to graph the tallest mountains in the world or the tallest mountains from each continent. The majority of the massive mountains are found in Asia.

Simple: Distribute sheets for the graph with the axis, categories, and title labeled. Give students the heights to graph in a chart form. Choose whether or not to have the students do the rounding to the nearest 1000 meters. Limit the number of mountains to graph to what seems within reach for the students.

As a class, map the countries represented by researchers in the story. Have students research spots where active volcanoes can be found today.

Provide this research prompt to the class: What happens when animals from other species are orphaned? Are all orphans treated the same way as young orphan penguins?

Rewrite the ending of the fictional story from the point where Annie walks away from Jack and comes upon a crack in the ice. Illustrate if you wish to.

Locate pictures of similarly perilous situations in magazines, newspapers, or comics and write captions to go with the pictures. The objective would be to develop a sense of choosing words to create a specific tone or vividly describe a scene. Use action scenes from the book as examples—e.g., when Jack dove toward the penguin to protect it from danger.

Use a thesaurus and your mind to list as many words as can be used to say something is cold. Ideas: chilly, icy bitter, artic, nippy, frigid, glacial, frosty, gelid, bleak, biting, polar, sharp, crisp, numbing, boreal, brisk

Jack and Annie choose to take Penny with them as they leave Antarctica though Nancy had told them the animals were to be left undisturbed. What reasons did Jack and Annie have for taking the penguin away from its home? Do you think they made a wise decision? Support your opinion with details.

Embellish on the secrets of happiness. Make a book or visual to describe each secret and show an example of how a person can practice the secrets of happiness: nature, curiosity, compassion, and taking care of someone who needs you.

Draw a web to connect the prey and predators in the ocean that are mentioned in the research guide. Add other organisms the students may already be familiar with.

Have each student adopt the persona of an explorer mentioned in the research guide. Conduct a letter exchange where the explorers write to one another about their expeditions, things they have in common, and their role models.

The research guide includes specific information about why the penguin is well prepared for life in Antarctica. Discuss with students that some of the reasons can be seen with our eyes, and some are inside the penguin’s body. Draw an outline of a penguin on the board and have student volunteers come up and label the physical characteristics of the animal that make it well suited for life on Antarctica. Then make a list next to the drawing of characteristics you may not be able to see with your eyes when you look at a penguin.

Here are some of the facts your students may come up with for the Thank You, Explorers! activity:

Locate and label the oceans of the world on a map. Be sure to point out the Southern Ocean.

Use large sheets of paper to draw life-sized replicas of animals mentioned in the book. Use measurement tools so the animals can be compared using the same scale.

Have students research an animal not mentioned in the research guide. Compare penguin life patterns with this other animal. Use a chart or Venn diagram to organize the information. Interesting animals to contrast the penguin with may include: wolves, Canadian geese, salmon, komodo dragons, sea turtles, and koalas. The information found could be shared in a variety of final products, as determined by the student and teacher.

Use the list belowas a starting point for bringing some of the quality words out of the fiction adventure and research guide. The words could be used for a number of things:

Ancestors, Ancient, Approaching, Blubber, Brood patch, Cathedral, Cavern, Cliff, Clutching, Confident, Craning, Crèche, Crevasse, Deserted , Dignity, Eerie, Enchanted, Gleaming, Grief, Hoarsely, Hoisted, Hovered, Immense, Indeed, Intelligence, Migrate, Muffled, Orphan, Parchment, Peered, Pillars, Preserve, Ravine, Rookery, Scurvy, Sorrow, Stung, Trembled, Urgent

The Penguins fiction adventure and research guide contain a large amount of trivia. Although the students should absorb the overview of the story and basic information first, sometimes it is helpful to provide some focus questions for the students to answer as they read or after reading. You could have the students answer questions orally or in written form. The questions are basic recall, but using them will give you feedback about the amount of information the student was able to retain. Secondly, the details included easily lend themselves to a board game. The facts could be printed on squares of card stock, laminated, and used in a board game. (Students could design the board and the rules for play.) The quantity of facts could also be fodder for a game show in your classroom. Use the questions and answers in a way that supports your objectives in the classroom.

Prepared by Beth Fawley, the 2006 Magic Tree House Educator of the Year, who is the K–12 Gifted and Talented Coordinator at Columbia Heights Public Schools in Minnesota .

There are a number of words in this book that will not necessarily be familiar to 21st century children. It may be helpful to pre-teach some of the terms and pronunciation. Below is a list of words that may be new to students. Several of the words have multiple meanings based on the context (e.g., a coach or china):

petticoat, cobblestone, coaches, imperial, reins, clatter, immense, archduchess, rise, elegant, china (dishes), finery (“dressed in finery”), admire, snippy, portly, terrace, flowerbed, fountain, luminous, conducting (an orchestra), hoop skirt, expression, flourish, wig

Discussion Questions

Find pictures of clothing from 1756. Using paper or art supplies have students design outfits that would have been worn in Mozart’s lifetime. They might want to get started by looking at the Historical Fashion blog.

In Mozart's lifetime, the closest thing to a piano was a harpsichord. Share a picture of a harpsichord with your class. Visit the Classics For Kids Web site to listen to music played on a harpsichord. Discuss the differences between a harpsichord and a piano.

Mary Pope Osborne uses lots of active verbs in Moonlight on the Magic Flute. Students always benefit from having a wide vocabulary with which to write and speak. To learn and practice some of the verbs Ms. Osborne uses, play charades! The page numbers are listed with each verb selected from the text. Once the students get the hang of the game, let them be the actor/actress!

crammed (p. 13), squashed (p. 13), squeezed (p. 13), jumped (p. 13), hurried (p. 13), rumbled (p. 16), lurched (p. 17), rustling (p. 20), towering (p. 29), trimmed (p. 29), heaved (p. 41), padded (p. 55)

Simpler: Learn to play charades with simple verbs, such as run, whisper, jump, and look. As the teacher, act out the verb so the class can guess. List the verbs on the board as the students guess correctly. (You could also offer a word bank if needed.)

More complex: Provide a broad set of sophisticated word choices for the students on the board or on paper as you act. Instead of run, aim for the students to select sprint, scamper, bolt, or chase from the board. Give credit for all relevant answers. Instead of jump, you could offer leap, bound, or hurdle. Show all the possible words for the entire game on the board at the same time so the students can choose from a large word bank. Include some of the words used in the book as listed below. It may be best to use the present tense for vocabulary words instead of the past tense, as is often found in this book.

Most Complex: Act out sophisticated (infrequently used) words and then ask the students to guess the term. (The most difficult task would be if you would not give them a word bank at all.) Once you use the words from the book, begin to create your own list.

Prepared by Beth Fawley, the 2006 Magic Tree House Educator of the Year, who is the K–12 Gifted and Talented Coordinator at Columbia Heights Public Schools in Minnesota.

• How does Annie lay a trap with her words that makes Jack come to the magic tree house?

• Dipper works really hard each day at his jobs. Why doesn’t he go to school?

• The research book calls Louis Armstrong the “King of Jazz," but he doesn't have a crown or a kingdom. What is the difference between a figurative king and a king, complete with a crown and a kingdom? How does a person become a figurative king?

• Jack and Annie see their clothes in New Orleans and decide that they look poor. What do they see that makes them look poor? What does poor look like today?

• Are the boys (Big Nose Sidney, Little Mack, Happy, and Dipper) really friends?

• What does a streetcar look like? Is it similar to any of transportation we use today?

• How will the visit with Dipper change Jack and Annie's thinking when they go back home?

• Why is it important for Jack and Annie to be poor as they visit Dipper? (Why did the author make them that way?)

• The pirates say, "Y'all be sure to come back! Same time next year!" Is the pirates’ invitation a genuine one? Do they really mean what they say?

• Do Jack and Annie have to show Dipper the research book? Do they have any other options?

• Jack and Annie have a clear mission in New Orleans. What will it look like when Dipper "shares his gifts with the world"?

• The children step inside the blacksmith shop even though they don't want to. What would it take to make you do something you didn't want to do? Give an example.

• They say you can make music any way you want. What else is like that? Think about things you can be creative with and make it any way you want.

Here are words to teach before students read Ghosts or to highlight while they are reading: wick, eerie, lantern, gig, eaves, okra, curfew, vendor, cathedral, banjo, harmonica, eve, confederate, blacksmith, scurvy dogs, sunup, buggy, raspy.

Ask students to pretend they are Jack or Annie and have them write letters to Dipper. They should imagine that they are back home, remembering the adventures in New Orleans. Encourage them to write using complete sentences and good handwriting. Here are some questions to get the class started:

In the book , Jack and Annie go through some pretty wild adventures. Each part of the day has a different mood. Have students page through the book and see if they can identify some of the moods the author created. How does the author create a mood?

Have the class reference pictures from the early 1900s to draw a street scene. Then have them draw the same street to show what it might look like in the 2000s. Include details and color.

Try a New Recipe!

Dipper was very busy during Jack and Annie's visit. List Dipper's jobs and illustrate the three children at work at each site. It may be fun to turn this into a book or "travel scrapbook."

• The Research Guide tells many ghost stories from throughout history, and then offers a scientific explanation for some of the "spooky" things people see and feel. Why do you think the authors chose to write the book this way?

As they read, ask the students to search for words that show the stories in Ghosts are not proven facts (e.g., claim, speculate, thought ). Use this list to start a discussion about the difference between knowing something for sure and knowing something possibly happened. Students who are exposed to news might also be able to give examples of words used in the criminal justice system before and after a trial.

Spark My Interest

Prepared by Beth Fawley, the 2006 Magic Tree House Educator of the Year, who is the K–12 Gifted and Talented Coordinator at Columbia Heights Public Schools in Minnesota.