Creative Teaching Resources for
by Eleanor Cameron (1954)
Plus: Takeaway Topics, Learning Links, and Prop Ideas
When two boys in Pacific Grove, California see an ad asking for two boys to build a spaceship, they quickly make one from old tin and scrap wood. When they take it to the advertiser, the mysterious inventor Mr. Tyco Bass, he refits their spaceship, provides special fuel, and sends them to Basidium X, the "mushroom planet," where Chuck and David (and a mascot hen) save the day for little green people in distress.
This isn't just a fun adventure, but a "you can do it" lesson in perseverance and the joys of science. It's tthe kind of story that kids look back on and say "that book is what inspired me to be who I am today."
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Start your experience of this story by introducing the kids to the author, so kids can asee the connections between her lived story and her written story.
Below is our kid-friendly biography of Eleanor Cameron. Our short video is a great discussion starter, and we've got a worksheet for author note-taking, too.
Set includes ALL worksheets and activity printables
A LitWits activity from the Exposition
The story is set in 1950s Pacific Grove, California (next door to us!) and also on Basidium-X, the Mushroom Planet (which isn't that far away either).
Our setting worksheet helps kids get their bearings on earth before launching toward outer space.
Set includes ALL worksheets and activity printables
A LitWits activity from the Exposition
"An adventure and a chance to do a good deed await the boys who build the best spaceship." Bass's little green notice in the paper has David—well, over the moon. He can't wait to build a real spaceship, as soon as he and Chuck get some parts!
Then he thought: Why not begin drawing the plans right away? So he got some paper and a pencil and started to work. [ . . . ] By bedtime, half an hour later, David had a most beautiful diagram of his space ship all finished. -Ch. 1
Here's the perfect chance to do something straight from the story, and have kids come up with "a most beautiful diagram" of their own space ship. As Mr. Bass wrote in his notice, "'nothing need be bought" and "no adult should be consulted." Give your kids a pencil and paper, and let them loose!
Or give them our special engineering paper and have them glue it to a piece of 9x12 black construction paper to take it up a notch.
Set includes ALL worksheets and activity printables
A LitWits activity from the Exposition
Hmmm, Mr. Tyco's notice says he wants the BEST space ship—but your classroom might have come up with lots of designs! Better put the kids to work getting their space ships from paper to production, so Mr. Tyco can make a decision!
DIRECTIONS
Divide the kids into pairs or teams and have them build a space ship using boxes and household and garage items, along with some "binders" like twine, rope, paper clamps, duct tape, and masking tape.
Then become Mr. Bass (or Mrs. Topman) and judge for feasibility and ingenuity! Of course, everyone's a winner here, so have some Mars and Milky Way bars on hand for prizes!
Set includes ALL worksheets and activity printables
A LitWits activity from the Rising Action
Mushrooms on an alien planet? What a great idea! After all, the kingdoms of fungi and outer space are both complex, mysterious, and largely undiscovered. The fungi kingdom, for instance, includes up to 3.8 million species, only a few thousand of which have been identified!
In this activity, kids create their own portobello spore print using our speciman template. Start or finish this activity with our science worksheet, which has kids read Chuck and David's in-flight conversation about the mushroom knowledge they've gained by looking up words in a dictionary. They'll study a diagram on the worksheet, then answer the questions.
SUPPLIES
portobello mushroom
plastic or glass cup (to fit over the mushroom)
specimen template (in our printables set)
black marker
science worksheet (in our printables set)
After the kids have done the science worksheet, tell them they get to put their new knowledge to good use.
Distribute the specimen template.
Once they've labeled the illustration, tell them they get to make a spore print. What's that, they ask? Show this video:
Give each child a mushroom and have them remove or cut the stem off very gently, so that it the cap lies flat. Continue as follows:
BookBites
A LitWits activity from the Resolution
BookBites is a “taste of the story.” We choose a food right out of the book, and it has to be important to a plot point or theme, and/or unfamiliar for reasons of era, culture, or location. For this book, we chose foods that had a lot to do with problem-solving and the plot's resolution.
. . . Chuck plopped down crosslegged on the moss and proceeded to root around in his bag for something that would please him. Out came pickles and hard-boiled eggs . . . -Ch. 11
We served pickles too (because they're CURED and we appreciate that meaningful pun), but it's Chuck’s smelly snack of hard-boiled eggs that reveals the secret to the salvation of the Mushroom People, at the last possible second: Sulfur!
"Dave!" he yelled, and he jumped from his seat . . . 'THE SMELL! THE SMELL! THIS IS IT!" -Ch. 14
The Mushroom People will survive by tapping into the sulfur springs! The boys have solved the puzzle, literally by using their wits! Now that your own kids have used their sensory wits, have them use their mental wits to do the witty creative writing worksheet. It's a fun way to figure out how an author is connecting two ideas.
For instance:
When David is in the garden looking for spaceship parts, he says, “excitedly, like a dog digging for a bone, ‘Yep, yep, just the thing for the instrument panel!’” This simile works because
_____ David has dug up a bone-shaped panel
_____ David is flinging bottles and cans behind him, the way a dog flings dirt when digging
_____ a dog makes a noise like “Yep, yep!” when it finds electronics
Set includes ALL worksheets and activity printables
A LitWits activity from the Falling Action
The space ship is destroyed in a storm, and Mr. Bass blows away, sporelike, to an unknown destination. Fortunately he’s left his home, lab, writings and observatory to the boys, with instructions to begin an astronomical society. They may not be able to return to Basidium-X, but they can look at it any time they want to through the telescope—so in a way, the tiny green planet will always be theirs.
And thanks to YOU, they've also got a phosphorescent jar of Basidium-X air, with a fruited glow-in-the-dark mushroom spore inside! It must've gotten in there when the jar was left open on Basidium. They'll label the jar and take the spore home to be made into spore prints either for propogation, or to keep as mysterious fungal art!
SUPPLIES
paintbrush (and cup for rinsing)
double-sided Alien tape (what else)
specimen label (in our printables set)
DIRECTIONS
Label the jar
Paint the inside
Use double-sided tape to attach the switched-on light.
NEXT . . .
As founding members of the new astronomical society, your kids will need to write a scientific analysis of that otherworldly air. We've got a worksheet for that!
Set includes ALL worksheets and activity printables
PREVIEWS BELOW
Throughout our workshops, we weave in worksheets that help kids process ideas in written form. For The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet, your kids can use our six worksheets to:
take notes about the author while watching our video bio
find Pacific Grove, CA on a map
follow the narrative arc and see how this story conforms to it
learn some science facts from David and Chuck
write a creative yet scientific analysis
figure out what certain story similes are really comparing
These worksheets and all our activity printables are included in our printables set—click the red button for previews and details.
Set includes ALL worksheets and activity printables
A LitWits souvenir
Here's a travel sticker to prove kids have taken a trip through this great book, LitWits style, and have met some great people and learned some great things on the way!
Set includes ALL worksheets and activity printables
The worksheets and printables used for our activities are sold as a complete set.
Common Core State Standards Alignment for the comprehensive use of our teaching ideas and materials is also included for grades 3, 4, 5 and 6.
What a BLAST this book is! It's been firing up imaginations and inspiring adventures, even careers, for almost eighty years. And it's packed with great takeaway topics, which we're sharing below.
In our workshops, we did our best to make these teaching points tangible, meaningful, and memorable in the kids' hands. It's amazing how much kids can learn while they're "just" having fun!
Takeaway 1
Mr. Bass is a fun guy, isn't he! And so are millions of other fascinating organisms right here on planet Earth. This story is a ripe opportunity to harvest the latest knowledge about the fungi kingdom, of which more is being discovered by the minute. See our Learning Links for lots of mesmerizing videos, and make full use of our science worksheet and spore print activity to teach kids some basic facts.
Takeaway 2
Once David gets it in his head to answer that "spaceship wanted" ad, he immediately begins drawing his rocket design and the next day, gathering supplies and building. Three days later, his planning (and follow-through) pay off! And although he and Chuck end up solving the Mushroom People's problem serendipitously,the solution comes because of Chuck's well-planned grocery packing and David's last-minute mascot grab. But the big problem this story raises is that of the deadly effect of climate change on Basidium-X. Today's kids, with enough planning, may be tomorrow's biggest problem-solvers.
The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet is chock-full of topics to explore, from the NASA space program to Space-X rocket design to the chemistry of sulfur. Scroll down to see our curated Learning Links for more tangential teaching opportunities, and to see how we brought this book and its ideas to life.
Explore these links to supplement your reading experience, research points of interest, and prompt tangential learning opportunities.
About the Book & Author
Story Supplements
Designing a Rocket in Six Easy Steps - NASA
Monterey Cypress tree - Calascape
10 Fun Facts About Fungi - Royal Horticultural Society
Video: Starship: Mission to Mars - SpaceX
Climate Change Facts for Kids - NatGeoKids
A Guide to Climate Change for Kids - NASA ClimateKids
Video: 15 of the weirdest fungi - TopFives
Video: "Fantastic Fungi" time-lapses by Stephen Axford - Planet Fungi
Video: trailer for Follow the Rain - stunning documentary about mushrooms - Planet Fungi
Video: A glowing underground network of fungi - Attenborough/BBC
Video: trailer for Fungi (Imax movie) - Planet Fungi
Set includes ALL worksheets and activity printables
When choosing props for our live workshops, we always try to focus on two important categories: props that are unique to the setting, because they help kids understand “what that was like,” and props that are symbolic of themes, because they make big ideas visual and tangible. Both kinds of props generate those wide-eyed, “aha!” moments. You could easily have your kids contribute items to a table over time, as the book is being read.
Notebooks, lab liquids, and assorted rocket-making parts, mostly from Dad's old garage—see details under each image below.
A generous donation from Far West Funghi in Monterey, CDA made this glorious display possible. See suggestions below.
Sometimes we create a printable prop; click the button to see what's included for this book.
Set includes all worksheets and activity printables
Vintage notebook (check eBay) and pressboard report cover with hand-written classic-style labels
We have no idea what this is! We found it in Dad's garage and it looked Bassworthy.
Fluid resinoid (or a can of water!) labeled by hand on a classic-style label (from Chapter 2)
Ta's marvelous necklace of many-colored stones—if you can't find it, this costume jewelry will do!
Canning jar of toadstools, mushrooms, weird roots (from our yards)
Large glass bottles, vases, or jars filled with mysterious liquids (or maybe water with food coloring added)
Our farm neighbors Far West Funghi donated these to us. if you don't have a fabulous fungus farm near you, just get a few of the weirdest mushrooms you can find at a gourmet grocery store.
An old fuel pump tester from Dad's garage—he used to teach auto mechanics. Your local mechanic might loan you some really old, beat-up rocket parts.
Basidium-x air (see the activity to create this), here captured in a canning jar and noted on a classic label
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Happy teaching,
Becky and Jenny
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LitWits teaching ideas and materials for The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet by Eleanor Cameron
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