Bus Unit Study
With their bright colors and flashing lights, buses are fascinating for young children. This lens features lots of activities for preschoolers.
From MobiStories to counting passengers, from The Wheels on the Bus to reading bedtime stories you will find dozens of ideas to keep your preschooler happy, busy and learning.
Climb aboard the bus to learning...
Bus Theme Table of Contents
- Bus
- Distract your restless child
- Snuggle and Read
- Bus Track Words
- Bus Words are Everywhere
- Bus, Train and Car Puzzle
- Bus Activities
- Beep, Beep Goes the Bus Game
- Time to Calm Down
- Bus Pattern Math
- The Gift of Time
- MobiStories Bus
- Valentine for the Bus Driver
- Love the Bus
- Look Who's Twittering about Bus Unit Studies
- Talk about the Bus
Bus
Chris L Demarest
If your preschooler is obsessed with buses, cars, trucks and trains. Bus by Chris L. Demarest is the book for you. With simple words, written in large print, a rhyming text and sounds to be repeated over and over this book is sure to be one of your child's favorites.
Bus comes in a board book edition which is ideal for the amount of use this book will receive but it also comes in a new format which makes it possible to keep your child happily reading no matter where you are.
- Bus
- MobiStories are narrated digital children's books with illustrations and music.
Preview the Bus book
Distract your restless child
Iphones put reading in the hands of children.
When your day is hectic and you need to get an errand done, your toddler is restless and you need to focus for just a few minutes your iPhone can read to your child. Not only will it keep him/her busy but with stories like Bus, they will also be working on those pre-reading skills needed later on in kindergarten.
- The number one reason to own an iPhone
- You can load iPhone with simple stories and then when you are trying to have a meal in a restaurant or fly on a plane with a rambunctious 2 year old...
Reading to Your Child
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends daily reading to children beginning by six months of age. Reading to children is a large part of a preschooler's education.
- Learning Activities and Choosing Curricula for VPK Education Programs
- The Florida VPK Education Program.
Snuggle and Read
One day I discovered a stuffed bus with little people that could go on and off the bus. We spent many hours playing with the bus and reading a favorite story, like Bus book.
There were times, however, when I needed to go to the lawyer's office, stand in line at the bank, or drive to my older daughter's ballet classes when I needed to keep him amused.
I wish that MobiStories had been there for him. There is nothing like a good book to help calm a restless child.
After you have read lots of bedtime stories here is a bus that your child can sleep with.
A+ School Bus
Amazon Price: (as of 11/09/2009) 
Bus Track Words
Preschool Educational activities to extend the Mobistories learning experiences:
Photo Credit: Train Track Letters
on Flickr, Creative Commons.
Use some wooden Brio Train Tracks to form the letters in the word bus. Now encourage your child to drive the bus on the track while making the sound of the letter.
Soon you may find that your child will start to pick out the letters when reading the word Bus.
B is for Bus
Printable Educational Activities for Kindergarteners
- B is for Bus words
- Color pictures that begin with b.
- Letter B practice
- Blue, bus, blues
- Vehicles
- Color the vehicles with words under them.
- I Like to Ride... Book, A Printable Book - EnchantedLearning.com
- I Like to Ride... Book, A Printable Book. Print out a I Like to Ride... Book early reader book.
- Bus Coloring Page
- The ABC's of Traffic Safety
- Art and drawing is often used to teach practical lessons to young children. Before they can read, elementary students learn through pictures. The colouring book, such as this one, is a useful tool to convey simple messages to children, while also teaching them hand and eye co-ordination, and basic d
Geoboards Spell Bus
Geoboards were originally intended for teaching geometry but teachers and children have descovered that they can also be used to spell words and make pictures.
Your child can use one board to make a Bus and three others to write each of the letters in the word bus.
Geoboards can not only be used to make the letters in the word Bus but are also a fun way to help young children understand geometry as well.
- Geoboard Letters
- Photos and ideas of kindergarten literacy activities or centers from Little Giraffes.
- Geo-Board Activity
- Geo Board Activities for children.
Busstop for Geoboards
Wooden Geoboards are sturdy and have a natural feel. Plastic ones come in a variety of colors break easily.
The larger number of pegs allows for more designs.
Bus Words are Everywhere
A Library in You Pocket
Studies have shown that there is a relationship between students becoming good readers and the number of books to which these students have access.
As you drive, walk or ride the bus, watch for words related to the Bus book. You will be surprised at how soon your child will begin to recognize them.
Now it is easy to take your child's favorite books with you. With MobiStories you can have a library in your pocket.
- Advocacy Committee | Wisconsin State Reading Association
- Studies have shown that students need to be in print rich environments. Students' reading achievement is highly related to the number of books to which they have access. Good readers are most likely to enjoy access to all of these: school library, classroom library, public library, and home library (Krashen, 1998).
Bus Stops
First Stop, People Meet
Bus
Piperberg, Cheryl
Buy at AllPosters.com
Transportation is a common theme for preschool through the early grades. This activity can be adapted for children of various abilities.
Lay down a rug with roads and make bus stops from wooden blocks.
Put wooden people at each of the bus stops. Talk with your child about who each of the people are. It can be fun to name them after people in your family. You could write the first letter of each person's name on the wooden dolls to help with learning initial consonants.
Talk about who the bus meets and picks up at the first stop, second stop, etc until the last stop.
You can write words on the blocks that come from the MobiStories Bus Book to reinforce the words they see. The more times they see the same word the quicker they will learn to read it.
1. At first just write the word bus on each of the bus stops.
2. When your child starts to recognize the word bus, you might add the word stop so that each sign says "bus stop".
3. Later on you might make one bus stop that says "first stop" the way it its written in the MobiStories Bus Book.
Do these steps very slowly, watching your child's progress day by day to becoming an avid reader.
A print saturated environment is recommended to for prereaders, preschoolers and beginning readers..
Bus, Train and Car Puzzle
More educational activites for your preschooler
Children love to do puzzles. Adding words to the puzzle pieces increases the number of times your child will see words such as Bus. Having a print saturated environment has been proven to help children learn to read.
Write the name of the vehicles on the back of each vehicle and in the space it goes to reinforce the words your child is learning to read.
As you put together the puzzle ask which vehicle begins with the sound "b" and have them point to the letter b at the beginning of the word bus.
The next time he reads the Bus book on your iPod he'll recognize the word bus.
Melissa & Doug Vehicles Chunky Puzzle
Amazon Price: $8.88 (as of 11/09/2009)
The Wheels On The Bus
The Wheels On The Bus is a great accompaniment to the Bus Book. Your child will love to sing the song, make the hand motions and look for the word Bus in the text.
The Wheels On The Bus
Amazon Price: $5.95 (as of 11/09/2009)
Double Decker Bus
Preschoolers need to see print everywhere.
After playing with the bus and the alphabetical animals older preschoolers might be ready to learn these sentences:
The alligator got on the bus and the bus went fast.
The fox got on the bus and the bus went fast.
The zebra got on the bus and the bus went fast.
Just change the animal's name for each sentence. You might write out the sentence one time leaving room to put the animal in the blank space for the animal's name.
Later on write out two or three separate sentences and help your child figure out which animal is being talked about by matching the letters with the words on the back of the animals.
- DOUBLE DECKER ABC ALPHABET BUS SHAPE SORTER with Animals
- This Big Alphabet Bus will keep you busy! Large Shape Sorting Double Decker Bus with 26 animals. Great educational toy, beginning with A for Alligator and ending with Z for Zebra. Animals are painted on one side with the other side showing their name. Age 3+
Double-Decker, Double-Decker, Double-Decker Bus
Preschoolers love these educational books.
Watch an ingenious young girl build a double-decker bus from cast away junk in the street. She uses imagination and ingenuity and soon has all the neighborhood children joining in.
The story is told using only 10 words repeated over and over in a fun way that invites children to begin looking for the words and soon be able to read the book themselves.
Both the bus and the book fit easily into your pocket book beside your iPhone so that you are always ready with something to amuse your child when you need to focus your attention elsewhere.
Double-Decker, Double-Decker, Double-Decker Bus (Wolcott, Patty. First Read-By-Myself Books (New York, N.Y.).)
Amazon Price: (as of 11/09/2009)
Thomas Wooden Railway Bulgy the Double-Decker Bus
Amazon Price: $18.75 (as of 11/09/2009)
People Meet
These are people you might meet when traveling by Bus. It is fun to name each one. You might write their names on them or on necklaces around their necks. Give them a house and an address so that your child can match their names with the names on their houses.
- Block People
- Block People represent a cross section of our population including: Differing Abilities, White Family, East Asian Family, and Black Family.
Cutouts for making Bus and Transportation Card Games
- Beep, Beep Clipboard Cutouts
- These cutouts of vehicles would make great matching cards.
1. Make two copies.
2. Cut out and glue one picture on each card.
3. Write the name of the vehicle under each picture.
4. Teach your child how to play first Concentration and later Go Fish with these cards. - Edspecially4U - Educational Resources
- An enchanting way to sing the favorite children's song "wheels on the bus". Your child will love singing along to the song using a hands on and visual approach. Each song comes with the words of the song.
The pictures can be placed on the windows of the bus as a visual reminder of the order of the verses, for learning to read left to right and to help children learn sight words from the song: Wheels on the Bus.
Bus Activities
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Park the Bus
Match the bus to the Right Garage
Turn playtime into learning time with this fun Park the Bus game.
1. Gather all the matchbox buses your child has lying around.
Write a number on each bus.
2. Put a number on each parking space to match the numbers on the buses.
3. Help your child park the buses in their spots.
If you use tape for attaching the numbers you can easily change the numbers.
Variation:
1. Label the parking spaces with color words.
2. Write the color word on the bus in black.
3. Help your child match the color word on the bus with the color word on the parking space.
Beep, Beep Goes the Bus Game
A Game of Sounds
Make up a sound effect for things you see and say it each time you pass one.
For example: you might decide that the sound Say "beep-beep" when you see a bus.
Say "honk honk."when you see a truck.
Say "Ooo-ooo" when you see a train.
Variation:
You can add animal sounds for animals
Say "splish splash" for rivers or ponds
Say "ring ring" (doorbells) for houses
Lots of fun.
- Car Games for Kids on a Long
- Sound Game
Time to Calm Down
When all the adults are starting to get a headache and it's time to calm down, consider handing your child a book that reads to your child. Bus is my nephew's favorite story. He loves to have it read to him over and over. Now I can play it on my car's DVD player and the miles just fly by.
"Mobistories can sooth a restless child."
Fisher Price Little People Ride the Bus
How many Little People can ride the bus?
As each Little People person gets on the bus talk about how many are already on the bus, how many are getting on the bus and how many that is all together riding on the bus.
This activity will help children eventually understand the concept of addition. Older children could pretend to be the supervisor in charge and write down the number sentences.
WARNING: Not for children under 3.
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Buses help conserve energy.
Most people drive to work by themselves in a car just like the one person that fits in each Fisher Price Little People cars.
Help children compare the number of cars needed to carry people to work in comparison to the number that a bus can take.
Comparisons like this will help children later in understanding division concepts.
WARNING: Not for children under 3.
Fetching new data from eBay now... please stand byWrite a Bus Story
After reading the Bus story by Chris L. Demarest:
1. Talk with your child about all the things you heard the bus.
2. Help your child to dictate predictable sentences onto sentence strips.
4. Draw simple pictures to help your child remember what each sentence says.
3. Put the sentence strips in order and re-read them with your child.
For example:
I hear the horn go beep, beep, beep.
I hear the brakes go hiss, hiss, hiss.
I hear the wipers go swish, swish, swish.
Educators use sentence strips and charts to help preschoolers and beginning readers learn to read from left to right and top to bottom. Beginning readers can start to rearrange sentence strips and then put them back in order.
- Vehicle Sort
- We sorted our vehicles many ways. Here they are
graphed by where they travel. - Car Songs, Truck Songs, Train Songs, School Bus Songs, Machines Songs
- Not for boys only, these transportation songs teach about trucks, cars, tractors, trains and other machines.
- Land Transportation Theme Preschool Activities and Crafts
- Land transportation theme preschool printable activities, crafts, lesson plans and coloring pages suitable for toddlers, preschool and kindergarten.
Sing and Spell the Bus Words
"Car, Bus, Van" song(Tune: Jingle Bells)
C-A-R, C-A-R that's how you spell car
B-U-S, B-U-S that's how you spell bus
V-A-N, V-A-N that's how you spell van
Transportation helps us, I hope you understand!
Sing the song several times so they feel successful and can spell the words.
Melissa & Doug See & Spell
Amazon Price: $15.07 (as of 11/09/2009)
Egg Carton School Bus
All children love to paint and create. This bus project is easy enough for even very young children.
While the paint is drying you can help your child make pictures of people to ride on the bus. Talk about the people you meet as in the Bus book.
When the bus is dry, start adding the people. Make up stories about them. Have them greet eachother and talk about why they are riding the bus today.
Some of the passengers may need to get off. You could talk about where they are going and what they will do there.
This is a lesson not only in art but also in Social Studies and works on the listening and thinking skills involved in reading comprehension.
- Egg Carton School Bus
- This is a simple craft for preschool children about to begin school.
Bus Pattern Math
Make a pattern and line up the buses
Make cards with pictures your child's favorite bus Bus Book.
Write simple words, phrases or sentences under each one such as
  yellow bus  blue bus
After you child gets the ideas of the ABAB pattern try another one such as:
Which is an AABAAB pattern.
Patterns are the basis of all mathematics and this activity will start your child on the route to higher level math skills.
Bus Literacy Bag
Literacy Bags extend the learning that goes on in schools and daycares and offer fun educational activities that parents can do with their children at home. Borrow the bag, read the stories and write about your experiences in the accompanying journal.
The Gift of Time
Bus from MobiStories
This year with the economy making life even more difficult for families with young children, MobiStories offers to give Busy Moms and Dads the gift of time. They don't want too much. Children are too important but a good educational story read to them while Mom or Dad answers the phone, makes a Christmas present, or focuses on an adult conversation may be just the perfect present this year.
MobiStories Bus
Mobistories are downloadable stories that can be played on your computer, iPhone, iPod, PSP, Zune, DVD player and most any other digital device. You can download Bus or several of our digital books for your child to watch and listen to.
- MobiStories: Downloadable Digital Books for Children
- Online books for kids, MobiStories, virtual books, digital books, download, audio books,reading
Look Who's Blogging about Bus
and other MobiStories
Bus by Chris L. DemarestMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
If your preschooler is obsessed with buses, cars, trucks and trains. Bus by Chris L. Demarest is the book for you. With simple words, written in large print, a rhyming text and sounds to be repeated over and over this book is sure to be one of your child's favorites.
Bus comes in a board book edition which is ideal for the amount of use this book will receive but it also comes in a new narrated digital children's book format which makes it possible to keep your child happily reading no matter where you are.
Beep, Beep Goes the Bus
View all my reviews >>
- Review of MobiStories by The Dirty Shirt
- This company has virtual books for kids where every story is narrated and has illustrations and music. And the goal of MobiStories is to improve reading in an entertaining and accessible format to improve literacy.
Valentine for the Bus Driver
Valentine Bus
School Bus, Policeman Mouse, and Mole Driving Car
Buy at AllPosters.com
Fetching new data from eBay now... please stand byLove the Bus
Show appreciation for your Bus Driver
- Love The Bus - Home
- The yellow school bus gets millions of kids to and from school safely and reliably each day.
Send us your stories about the unsung heroes who keep your kids safe and out of harm's way. Or read what others have sent.
More MobiStories Lenses
Watch for more MobiStory Lenses in the near future.-
Mobistories Headquarters
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MobiStories: Downloadable Stories for Children MobiStories are downloadable stories for children by famous authors such as Chris L. Demarest, Sandra Robbins and Steven Kroll. You can download MobiStories onto any Mp3 device and let the narrator read...
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Lumpy Bumpy Pumpkin Unit Study
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There are five little pumpkins in Farmer Joe's Pumpkin Patch. Four of them are round and shiny and look like the perfect pumpkins but the fifth little pumpkin is lumpy and bumpy. Lumpy Bumpy Pumpkin is on stage in NYC jaround Halloween at Shadow Box...
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Wintertime Activities for Kids
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Winter is the time to snuggle up and with a good book, make a winter table and watch the snowflakes falling down. It's a time when the days are short, the nights are cold and the smell of woodsmoke is in the air. Get ready for the cold with The Jack...
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The Thanksgiving Tale of Tobias Turkey
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Tobias Turkey is a determined little turkey who wants to win the prize for being the biggest turkey on Farmer Joe's Farm. This Thanksgiving Tale by Sandra Robbins can lead into a unit study of domestic turkeys with poems, crafts, math activities and...
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Train Unit Study
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Have you ever stood near a railroad track and watched a train? Trains are fascinating. They seem to be going so slowly at first and then faster and faster as they get closer. No matter what age you are, everyone loves trains. As your child chugs alo...
Now even more lenses feature MobiStories
MobiStories are narrated digital children's books with illustrations and music.-
Transportation Unit Study
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Young children are always on the go so it only follows that some of their favorite toys are cars, boats, planes and trains. This transportation theme can wheel us along with games, math activities and science projects that keep your child busily lear...
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MobiStories: Digital Books for Children
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MobiStories are narrated digital children's books with illustrations and music written by famous authors such as Steven Kroll and Chris L. Demarest. Digital Books can be downloaded onto any MP3 device and offer children high quality, educational lit...
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Autumn Unit Study
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Leaves are crunching below your feet and geese are flying overhead. It's time to gather in the pumpkins and munch on crisp ripe apples. Watch the squirrels gather nuts and the birds fight over the sunflower seeds. Fall is here and learning is all aro...
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Beep, Beep Goes the Bus
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One of the most popular themes for preschoolers is transportation. Listen to the sound of a bus going beep, beep, beep. Hear the roar of the bus as it pulls up to the bus stop. Notice the hiss of the air coming from the brakes. With their bright col...
Talk about the Bus
MobiStories read to your child when you can't.
Nothing can replace snuggling up and reading a great book but for a few minutes, while you talk to the bank manager, you can snuggle and allow Mobistories to read to your child.
Have you ever let your child use your iphone, ipod or cellphone to distract them at the bank, doctor's office or in a corporate setting?
Would you consider MobiStories such as Bus an acceptable and educational way to distract your child?
tandemonimom wrote...
Another splendid resource from Evelyn! Welcome to The Homeschooling Group!
Posted May 05, 2009
JaguarJulie wrote...
Evelyn, this is another of your adorable lenses -- that would make such a sweet little booklet for children.
Posted March 18, 2009
Meet the Author of this Lens
Evelyn's Hands-On Learning Blog.
Find out what else I'm doing when I'm not reading about buses:
-
Evelyn Saenz: Lensography of a Teacher
-
My passion is teaching and finding ways to teach children in fun, hands-on, creative ways. The unit studies I make on Squidoo reflect my view that learning should be integrated and no skills should be taught in isolation. I believe that each topic s...
by Evelyn_Saenz
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