The Wheels on the Bus

Communication & Language

Play a game using some small world busses. Describe one of the buses for others to identify, can they guess which one you are describing? Encourage careful listening skills by describing the buses in different ways, such as their size, colour or number of wheels.

Invite children to role play a bus journey/ride! Sit on a rug together or use chairs and encourage the children to talk about where they might go and what they would like to see on their bus journey.  Hide a toy vehicle and encourage children to use positional language to direct a friend to find it. For example, it is next to/behind the bench.

Personal, Social & Emotional Development

Hide some small world busses or photos of different types of buses around the setting. Encourage the children to work together to find all of the hidden items.   Challenge the children to work together in groups to build a bus. They could use large building blocks or empty cardboard boxes. Encourage children to find ways to work together to build and decorate their model.

Physical Development

Play a traffic light movement game. The children can pretend to be buses. As you call out the traffic light colours, children should stand still for red, jump for amber and walk quickly for green. You could add extra movements, such as running for a motorway or lining up behind each other and walking for a traffic jam.  Sing the song, ‘The Wheels on the Bus’. Invite children to join in with the song and do the actions.

Mathematics

Complete the ‘ten frame bus’ activity. Cut and stick the people on to the bus, what happens if we add one more or take one away? Can also encourage children to draw their own people on the bus in the spaces if they’d like. Look at circular shapes and objects around the room. How many wheels do buses have? Provide a selection of pre-cut circle, square and rectangle shapes. Encourage children to arrange the paper shapes to make a bus of their own. Talk about the different shapes and sizes they used.

Literacy

Create a themed reading area by setting out a selection of fiction and non-fiction books about buses. Read the stories and discuss them with the children.  Cut out bus shapes and write the children’s initials or names on them, can they identify their own?

Understanding the World

Pretend to go on a bus ride around the outside area. Invite children to talk about the natural world and the things that they see on their journey.

Expressive Arts & Design

Provide a large bus outline and encourage children to work as a team to add features, such as windows, wheels and lights, using varied materials, such as fabric, tissue paper, felt and gems etc.  Using junk-modelling items encourage the children to make their own bus.

Learn the song, ‘The Wheels on the Bus’. Invite children to join in with the song and think of their own sound effects and actions. Make a bus picture using pre-cut up shapes - glue and stick.

Focused Vocabulary

Bus, Wheels, Bus driver, Round, Circle, Wipers, Swish, Horn, Seats, People, Ticket, Bus stop.