It has been a privilege to collaborate with Mary Pope Osborne,  author of the Magic Tree House series, a collection of children’s books that many of us grew up with and have shared with our own children. Mary, a dedicated advocate for children’s literacy, is the award-winning author of over 100 books for children and young adults, including the companion Magic Tree House Fact Trackers series.

The Classroom Adventures Program is a free educational initiative crafted to tap into children’s excitement for the adventures of Jack and Annie, igniting a passion for reading and learning across diverse subjects. This program aids elementary school teachers with extensive resources to achieve curriculum standards in innovative and engaging ways, creating a lasting impact in the classroom. It features a Curriculum Key that aligns each book with Lesson Plans based on Common Core standards.

Designing an Adventure-Filled Portal

While staying true to the Magic Tree House brand, our team carefully aligned every design detail ensuring the website feels like a seamless extension of the beloved series, all while integrating modern tools to make searching and accessing a vast database of hundreds of lesson plans effortless for educators.

Gathering the Data Trove

To organize the some 250+ Lesson Plans, we used Airtable, our go-to relational database software, to handle the backend. It connects Magic Tree House Books to their matching Lesson Plans and Fact Trackers, keeping in mind the books often group into series or clusters. Plus, we added Curriculum Key attributes to boost search and filtering by topic on the website, making it simple for educators to find what they need.

Uncovering Hidden Treasures

Usability was a top priority to help educators quickly track down Lesson Plans and Fact Trackers. We built a centralized dashboard with search and filtering tools that connect straight to our Airtable database, making access fast and easy.