"Take Chances! Make Mistakes! Get Messy!"

Thursday was Superstar Book Character Day for I Love to Read Month and I came up with the perfect costume idea... Ms. Frizzle.

 
My 4th graders guessed who I was right away, but guessing which character my supervising teacher was took much longer, mostly because she didn't dress up.  When pressed by our students, she said she was somebody's mom.  Of course they wanted to know which specific mom she was.  She thought for a while, but before she could answer, one student said, "Oh! I know! You're Ms. Frizzle's mom!"  So Mrs. J was Ms. Frizzle's mom.  The student who had made the comment hadn't dressed up either, so he decided he would be one of the students from The Magic School Bus.  He couldn't remember any of their names, so I started to suggest some,
"How about Arnold?"
"Is he the guy with glasses?"
"Yep."
(he made a face)
"Why don't you be Ralphie?"
"Who's Ralphie?"
"The guy whose body was explored in that episode we watched..."

"Oh, yeah, that's a good idea.  I'll be Ralphie."

Other costume ideas from the day included: Pippi Longstocking, Harry Potter, Junie B. Jones, Cowgirl Kate, Charlie Bone, and Despereaux.  Kristy, the other 4th grade student teacher, dressed up as Amelia Bedelia.  Her supervising teacher dressed up as the boy in the striped pajamas (they were working on a unit about the holocaust).