My 5 year old absolutely loves the Magic School Bus and was insistent that he would be the Magic School Bus for Halloween this year. Our aim was to make this costume on a tight budget and we did well!
We started with a box, ironically from an order of Scholastic books that included a bunch of Magic School Bus books, and cut it to a school bus shape and hot glued a smaller box on for the front end. We used construction paper, markers and foil to make the accents, windows and bumper. The characters are drawn and colored on white paper and then backed with a light blue paper that has been covered with clouds using a white crayon. The windows are just black construction paper frames with page protector windows.
I found a license plate graphic online and made a custom license plate – HMSCHL (seeing as how we are homeschoolers and it is kind of ironic that a homeschooler dressed up as a school bus!). Everything was hot glued and taped down with packing tape until it was strong enough to withstand a 5 year old.
I added straps for carrying with an old harness and furniture Velcro. We finished the Magic School Bus costume off with a tee shirt of my son’s design – Magic School Bus book covers and Ms. Frizzle’s favorite saying “Take Chances, Make mistakes, Get messy!” and a Magic School Bus logo on the fanny.
My son had a lot of people smiling while he trick or treated and all for just $3 for spray paint and $2 for a sheet of iron-on transfer paper.
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Really creative. I like it a lot :) And I’m 16.
My son decided he wanted to be the Magic School Bus for Halloween – and I was scared to death to try to make something for him. Your costume turned out GREAT – and I know we can do this. Thanks for posting such great pictures.
My son had his heart set on being the Magic School Bus for Halloween and I found your post. I had to use yellow wrapping paper instead of spray paint because the paint wouldn’t stick properly. It turned out amazing! He LOVED it! The pictures are great!
hello im going to go as the magic school bus for the relay for life and wonted to know where you got your black and white images from because I’ve searched the net and had to no luck