The Wheels On The Bus


 

Information provided for classroom use only; not for publication.

.thevirtualvine.com 2001

 

 “The Wheels On the Bus” Song:
The wheels on the bus go round and round;
round and round;
round and round.
The wheels on the bus go round and round,
all through the town!
(pump your arms up and down like a train wheel)

The horn on the bus goes beep, beep, beep;
beep, beep beep;
beep, beep, beep.
The horn on the bus goes beep, beep, beep;
all through the town!
(pretend to beep horn)

The wipers on the bus go swish, swish, swish;
swish, swish, swish;
swish, swish, swish.
The wipers on the bus go swish, swish, swish,
all through the town!
(move your forearm back and forth like a windshield wiper)

The people on the bus go up and down;
up and down;
up and down.
The people on the bus go up and down,
all through the town!
(bob up and down)

The babies on the bus go waa, waa, waa;
waa, waa, waa;
waa, waa, waa.
The babies on the bus go waa, waa, waa,
all through the town!
(pretend to put your fists in your eyes like a crying baby)

The parents on the bus go shh, shh, shh;
shh, shh, shh;
shh, shh, shh.
The parents on the bus go shh, shh, shh,
all through the town!
(put your index finger over your lips)

The signals on the bus go blink, blink, blink;
blink, blink, blink;
blink, blink, blink.
The signals on the bus go blink, blink, blink,
all through the town!
(flick your fingers on both hands like you’re flicking water off them)

The motor on the bus goes zoom, zoom, zoom;
zoom, zoom, zoom;
zoom, zoom, zoom.
The motor on the bus goes zoom, zoom, zoom,
all through the town!
(pretend to be driving the bus)
~ Author Unknown
 

Poetry Journals: Don't forget to add the songs and poems to your Poetry Journals.  For more info on Poetry Journals, visit the Literacy Connections page.
Shape School Bus:
Use a bright yellow rectangle and a yellow square for the bus.
Add two round black wheels for the tires.
Glue on four or five square blue windows for the children.
One triangle window for the driver.
Give the children various "skin tone" circles for the children's heads. Have them draw the faces and glue one circle in each blue square window.  There, you have a SHAPES school bus!
Piggyback Song for The Wheels on the Bus:
The children on the bus sit nice and quiet, 
Nice and quiet,
Nice and quiet.
The children on the bus sit nice and quiet,
When we take a ride

then .... look out the window

then ... stay in their seats

You can use this song with the Shapes School Bus activity from above. An extension would be to make a list of safety rules on the bus. Then set the chairs up like a bus aisle and talk about keeping their feet out of the aisle, etc. 
 

Extension Book: School Bus by Donald Crews
Bus Snack: Take a graham cracker and cut off one corner for the bus shape; frost with yellow frosting. Add chocolate Nilla wafers or mini-Oreos for wheels, a Teddy Graham for the driver, Golden Grahams for the windows, yellow M&Ms for the lights, a strip of skinny black licorice for a stripe along the middle of the bus, etc.
The top picture is the model that I did with the children first.
The second picture is the model on the left and a student's bus on the right.  :)
Bus Safety
(tune: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star)

When you're driving on the bus
Don't stand up and make a fuss.
Follow every safetly rule,
The driver will get you safely to school.
Talk quietly and be polite
Listen well, and do what' s right.
~ Author Unknown
 

“Wheels on the Bus” piggy-back safety song:

The children on the bus go up and down,
Up and down, up and down.
The children on the bus go up and down,
All the way to school. 

The children on the bus should sit down in their seats …
The children on the bus should talk quietly …
The children on the bus keep their hands to themselves …
The children on the bus listen to their driver …

Perfect for adding to their Poetry Journals as well as making a bus shape book.
 

Bus Graph: Provide each student with a 3 x 5 yellow rectangle.  Have them round the corners off to form the body of the bus.  Then provide them with two black 1 x 1 squares.  Have them trim the corners off the squares until they have circles for the wheels.  Have them glue the wheels onto the bus in the appropriate places.  Have them use a black crayon and write “Bus” along with their bus number on the side of the bus.  You might also have them draw in some windows with faces in them.  Then graph all the buses by their numbers.  For those students who do not ride a bus, you could have them write the number of the bus that they would ride if they were a bus rider.  Another alternative would be to graph bus numbers along with how many walkers, and how many car riders OR just graph bus riders, walkers, car riders.  This would also be a good activity to help your students learn their bus numbers.
Class Book: Provide each student a bus shaped page with the sentence frame:  The ______ on the bus goes ______, ______, ______.   Have the students fill in the blanks on their page as they wish.  Ex.  The brakes on the bus go squeak, squeak, squeak.  The students each illustrate their page or you could provide a bus graphic for them to color and add children’s faces.  All pages are compiled along with a yellow title page and a yellow back page to form a class book.
Bus Safety Bulletin Board: Make a huge bus on the bulletin board with children’s faces in the windows.  Have speech bubbles above their heads with bus safety rules in the bubbles.
Pocketchart Activity: Make sentence strips with the sentence frame:  The wheels on the _______ go round and round.  Provide index cards with the following words:  car, truck, bike, skateboard, wagon, train, van, skates, firetruck, 4-wheeler.  Have matching index cards with the pictures.  The students plug a word into each sentence frame then matches the correct picture to it.
Emergent Reader: Have your students make their own book:  Wheels Take Us From Here to There.  Have the sentence frame from above on the page along with a blackline picture to match it.  Have your students write in the name of the picture and color it.
Cassette: If you’d like to purchase a cassette with the Wheels On the Bus song on it, check out the Wee Sing Cassettes.
Musical Chairs: Set your classroom chairs up like the seats on the bus and sing the “Wheels On the Bus” song along with the motions.
Game: Start the game yourself by saying, “I went for a ride on a bus and I saw _______.”  Then instruct one of your students to say, “I went for a ride on a bus and I saw …”; they have to say what you said and add on what they saw.  The next person says, “I went for a ride on a bus and I saw …”; they say what you said, plus the first student, then add on their answer.  Game keeps going until all students have participated or until there’s no way possible that it can continue.
Outside Game: Play “Red Light, Green Light”.  One student is the traffic signal and stands well in front of the class who’s lined up shoulder to shoulder.  The student in front turns their back to the class and says, “Green Light!”  The class starts to move towards the student in front as quickly as possible.  Quickly, the student in front turns back around and yells, “Red Light!”  The class must freeze.  Any one caught moving is out of the game.  The person to reach the student in front first, is then allowed to be the traffic signal.
Matching Games: Get two sizes of bus shaped notepads or one bus notepad and children notepads.  Use these to make matching games.  You can program them with whatever skill you're working on.  They can match capital to lowercase letters, rhyming words, rhyming words to pictures, rhyming pictures, dots to numbers, words or pictures to make compound words, opposites, etc.   You can mount the notepad pages onto cardstock or construction paper and then laminate them, or just laminate the pages.  You can also use the notepads or Ellison cut-outs to make sequencing activities. 

*You can also use bus shapes and match them to schoolhouse shapes. 
 

Bus Reproducibles: The kindergarten Sept/Oct 1998 Teacher's Helper has several reproducibles. 
There are many different versions of the Wheels On the Bus book and song.  Amazon.com has quite a selection.  You can purchase a cassette with the song for as little as $2.69 and a copy of the book for $2.75. 
Extension Book: The Seals on the Bus by Lenny Hort
"The seals on the bus go errp, errp, errp; The tiger on the bus goes roar, roar, roar; The monkeys on the bus go eeeeh, eeeeh, eeeeh, etc.  All around the town". (posted by Lisa)

You could use the "Egg Carton School Bus" project below and add animal faces instead of children's faces. 
 

Bus Safety Program: Someone posted the following information on the 'net from Navistar, but they didn't give information on how to contact them.  You might be able to find them by doing a search on the 'net if you're interested in obtaining the additional classroom materials.

Be Cool. Follow the Rules. School Bus Safety Program

The National PTA
Navistar International Transportation Corporation
 

Art Project: TLC Bus
Riddle: 
In bright yellow coats
All in a row,
We sleep through the summer
With no place to go.

In September we wake up,
Guzzle our fuel,
And stop at the corner
To take you to school!

WHAT ARE WE???
~ Author Unknown
 

You can hear the Wheels On the Bus tune at:
Sing Along Songs:  The Wheels On the Bus
http://members.home.com/veeceet/wheelsbus.html
Egg Carton School Bus
http://www.dltk-kids.com/school/egg_carton_school_bus.htm
M &O Bus Lines - Kid's School Bus Safety Zone
http://www.mo-buslines.com/ie/safety/kidsafety.html
Printable Coloring Book
http://bussafety.freeyellow.com/coloringbook.html
 

School Bus Cake

http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/special/cake/cake_schoolbus/

New! 7.20.07

Wheels On the Bus story props printables

http://kizclub.com/storypatterns/wheels(C).pdf

http://kizclub.com/storypatterns/wheels.pdf


  
6/01
Updated 7.20.07