I plan on starting the magic tree house series and am wondering if you have to read them in order or can you skip around??
I also wanted to know if anyone knows any websites for fun activities or crafts to go with the books. I am hoping to do some lapbooking along with the books if I can find enough info.
Any info you can give would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks so much!!
I would recommend reading at least the first 3 books in order. They introduce the characters and the tree house and some important background knowledge. After that I don’t know that it matters a lot.
I would suggest Pinteresting activities that go with each book’s theme or time period. That will give you Science and History activities. For example Mummies in the Morning takes place in Ancient Egypt, so I would look for stuff on pyramids, mummification if that’s not too morbid for your child, cats, Cleopatra, etc. I think I have seen some Magic Tree House specific lesson plans on Pinterest as well, but not tons. You might also check Teachers Pay Teachers, but you’ll probably have the most luck piecing together activities related to book topics. Each book’s synopsis should give you enough information to get you started.
Thanks so much for responding!!!
I like the website http://www.homeschoolshare.com/ for lapbooks. I just checked really quickly and they don’t seem to have specific ones for Magic Tree House, but if you’re reading them and studying a theme (like a jungle theme or pirate theme) there are lots of lapbooks for that sort of thing. Check it out and maybe it will work. Or maybe not. 
Like someone else said, after the first few, you really don’t need to read them in order. Many of the MTH books also have a companion non-fiction book with loads of info about the topic - all written in very kid friendly language. We like to use those too. Teachers Pay Teachers has units pertaining directly to different MTH books - some are free, some you have to pay for. I haven’t specifically looked at them, so I don’t know much about them, but it may be worth looking into if you don’t want to spend a lot of time piecing something together yourself (I have purchased numerous things from TeachersPayTeachers and almost all have been a great benefit to my time and lessons). Also, like mentioned by someone else, Pinterest is a wonderful option if you do want to piece it together yourself. Good luck!
We did COH Expedition Earth a couple of years ago and that is when our love for magic tree house started. I would find the book that correlated with the country we were studying. So we were reading them out of order. At first I was reading them to my kids. After Christmas my K5 boy was reading them to himself. He was hooked! After we finished Expedition Earth, he went back and read the remaining books in order.
You will find that the first books are easier to read and they progressively longer and better.(especially when you get to the Merlin Mission books)
He also enjoyed A-Z Mysteries Series at that age. Hope that helps.
Thanks so much to everyone who responded. It is much appreciated!!
There are some books in the series that need to be read in order even later on. My daughter picked one up to read and was then disappointed to find there was a book before it she needed to read first, as well as one after it.
Every four books have the same continuing story, so 1-4, 5-8, and so on. If you go to magictreehouse.com, there is a section for teachers that has activities for each story.
A friend just shared this with me. The link has lesson plans for each book!
My daughter read the series earlier this year and loved it. She read the series in order after I read the first one to her. She loved the way each story unfolded according to a predictable development. It confirmed her understanding of the way these books work. She liked knowing what was coming, while being surprised and engaged by the glimpses of different historical figures and times. Several of the books inspired us to springboard into a deeper study of that time. The fact trackers, which we read together, were outstanding.
I did not have access to this link at the time we read them, but it looks like a great resource for anyone to use with the series!
http://mthclassroomadventures.org/index.php?r=site/lessonplans
Thank you Ally for sharing the link for the Magic Tree House lesson plans. They are FANTASTIC!!
Thanks a million for the link!! It is wonderful!!
Thanks for sharing the link! It’s awesome! My daughter has been reading MTH for leisure, but I never thought of using it as part of lessons for other subjects. Now I’m seriously considering purchasing them as our local library only have a few books!