Can you take a second to imagine this scenario?
Pretend that it’s about 7am, and you’re driving a huge, noisy, yellow bus through your neighbourhood, after getting up super early to inspect the bus and make sure it’s safe.
You pick up student after student – who may range in age from 3 (YUP – here in NS, we have 3-year-olds who take the bus!!!) to 18.
After an hour or so, your bus is full of kids – sleepy kids, excited kids, nervous kids, hyper kids, hungry kids, kids with “attitude”… all kinds of kids!
Now imagine having to supervise all of those kids… while also keeping them safe on the road.
Watching for errant drivers, deer/wildlife, and who knows what else!
Driving through rainstorms, ice storms, snowstorms, in 30+ degree heat with no AC, etc.
All the while knowing that one mistake, one lapse in judgment, or one distraction (even though your bus is FULL of distractions!) could lead to tragedy for any of those kids and their families.
I can’t imagine being a bus driver, and I truly think they are among the unsung heroes of the education system.
Can you imagine driving all those kids around and making sure they get to and from school safely every day?
NO. THANK. YOU!
I feel like I owe it to them to do a little bus safety review in the classroom, right from the first week of school.
A bus safety discussion and craft help me do my part in making sure my students are as calm and safe on the bus as possible.
Read on to see what we do!
To kick off our discussion, I like to read the book Sami va à l’école by Mary Labatt.
The Sami books are so cute: Sami is a little puppy who often gets into big trouble. There are a bunch in the series, and we read them all throughout the year.
These books are a bit old though, and if you can’t get your hands on that book, Pat le chat has a “Wheels on the Bus” version that would be great, too!
In this book, Sami sneaks onto the bus to go to school. This leads to a great conversation about how pets are NOT allowed on the bus!
After that inspiring conclusion, we talk about other rules that are important to follow on the bus.
(Not all of my students take the bus, but we will be going on a few class trips, so bus safety is relevant to everyone.)
**If NONE of your students take the bus, then you might want to save this activity for if you’re going to be taking a bus trip later in the year.
I use our discussion to build an anchor chart about bus safety rules with my students, which I display by the door.
Here are some examples of rules we usually come up with:
- Always stay in your seat
- Remain seating when the bus is moving
- Wait your turn to get on/off the bus
- Use your inside voice
- Always face forward
- If someone is bothering you, talk to the driver about it
- Only eat or drink if the driver says it’s okay
- Make smart choices – if you’re allowed to choose your seat, sit with someone that you won’t be silly with
- Keep your bookbag inside the seat with you (not in the aisle)
- Sit on your bum – not your knees
- Pay attention so you know when it’s your stop
- Arrive on time to your bus stop in the morning
After we build our anchor chart, I love to do a bus craft.
Fun fact: My other half actually went to digital art school and can draw anything you can imagine on the computer. I have been...encouraging… him to make me some craft templates. ;)
He made the bus that I will be sharing with you today!
It’s mega simple…just what I like on the second day of school!
I run the bus and windows on yellow and blue paper, but the bumpers, wheels, etc. I run on white paper and have my students colour them in if they choose.
You can find the template in the Holidays/Seasonal section of the Free French Resource Library.
It isn’t fancy and doesn’t have instructions because it’s never made it to my Teachers Pay Teachers store, and my husband drew it for me. This is me giving him credit! ;)
It’s super simple to put together, but turns out really cute!
Here are a few examples of what my students came up with this year. I love how they are all different!
(If you aren’t yet a member of the Free French Resource Library, you can sign up RIGHT HERE to get the password to be able to access the bus craft template)
Are you as thankful as I am that you don’t have to be responsible for driving your students around safely in snowstorms?
Share your bus safety suggestions in the comments!
