Thematic Activities

The class needs a new mascot for their soccer team, the old mascot being so old that nobody even knows what it is anymore. Phoebe is convinced it should be the butterfly, but the rest of the class disagrees with this. Janet shows up again and convinces the class that their mascot should be the "Bog Beast." Since nobody seems to know what a bog beast is, the Friz takes the class on a trip to the swamp to find out.

When Wanda and Tim were delivering honey from Tim's grandfather's bee farm, they encountered a bee flying around them, causing their cart to tip over, all of the jars fell and broke, and the honey flow down the storm drain. Desperate to replace the ruined honey, the class then learns about the life cycle of bees to make more honey. When they accidentally lead a bear to the hive, the class ends up having to help the bees replace their lost supply of food as well as replacing Wanda's and Tim's merchandise. In the end, a customer tells them that the honey they made is the best-tasting yet.

The class is going to make a movie about ants, and Keesha is the director. She finds an ant to be the star, but the ant runs away to an ant hill with hundreds of other ants, leaving Keesha increasingly frustrated at her inability to find an ant to serve as the focus of the movie.

The class has gone to a drive-in movie to watch the black and white B-film Stand by Your Mantis from 1953 featuring General Araneus (Ed Asner) who is attempting to destroy a giant praying mantis. Carlos and Phoebe are not enjoying it. Carlos hates insects and spiders, and Phoebe is upset and declares that if she were in that movie, then she would trap the mantis, take it somewhere else, and free it. Naturally, this gives Ms. Frizzle an idea. So she drives the bus into the movie. General Araneus takes over the bus, kidnaps Liz, and pushes a button that makes the class go back out of the movie and shrink. He wants to use Liz as bait for the praying mantis. Outside the movie, the class encounter spiders a lot, and when Liz pushes a button that pulls them back in the movie, they apply what they have learned about spiders to stop the General from using Liz as praying mantis bait.