The Wheels on the Bus

---

Bus Parts Large       
Shape Maker

Great for roleplaying. Download and
stick on these bus parts to any
large boxes you find around the home.
Young children will have hours of fun.

---

Bus Parts Small       
Lamp

These smaller bus parts are great for
cutting out and sticking on smaller boxes.
Let your child's imagination run lose.

---

Road Signs       
Mirror

Get out the bikes and ride along cars.
These road signs can be cut out and
put out in the garden children will
have great fun playing with these and
practice their road sense at the same time.

---

Bus Picture       
to Colour

Colour in the bus and landscape.
Feel free to add in a few passengers.

Fun Facts, Links and even more Activities!

• Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus

  Below is a You Tube video animated
  by C Bernie Van Tilburg of "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" by Mo Willem's which is a great children's book.
  
  
  
  If you enjoy this story there are many other books written by Mo Willems that you can easily find in book stores.

• The Wheels on the Bus Steering Wheel

  Either print out just the steering wheel from the Bus Parts Large activity above or make one out of a paper plate. Keep it in the car so your child can have fun driving with you. Make sure you put a red button in the middle so you can both honk the horn together. Explain what you are doing as you are driving. This is a great bonding experience as kids love being involved in such a grown up activity and it will help your child to pick up directions and learn their left and right.
• Here are some facts about buses. Did you know that
• the word "bus" comes from the Latin word omnibus meaning "For all". Horse drawn buses were the the first kind of public transport and started being used during the industrial revolution when people had to travel further to get to work. Before this horse and carriages were used.
• Horse drawn buses were used until the invention of the steam buses in the 1830's.
• Nowadays most buses have an engine and are free to be driven around on most roads but some buses called trolley buses are powered by overhead electric cables so they can only follow a select route.
• Interest has been growing for buses in the future to be hybrid electric buses, fuel cell buses, fully electric buses, as well as compressed natural gas or biodiesel.
• Annually school buses carry some 24 million students totalling 4 billion miles.
• In comparison to other road vehicles, school buses have a very good safety record.
• Different Countries have different rules for school buses. In the US it became compulsory for school buses to be yellow because yellow is the colour that gets your attention faster than any other colour. Even when there is bad weather or it is dark, yellow shows up best.
• Buses are not only great for travelling and getting children to school they can be used to provide space for many other services as well eg. mobile libraries, indoor playpits and some people even make houses out of buses. In Australia they have mobile kids health clinics in rural NSW. In India they even have a bus that has been turned into a school to educate poor children who live in the slums.
• Although The Wheels on the Bus is one of the most popular nursery rhymes in the English speaking World very little is known of its origin except that it is an American song from the first half of the last century. Children love this song because it is easy to make up actions to each of the steps and fun to sing along too. Although everyone seems to make up their own version!

Links

Bus & Other Transport Museums

• http://www.brooklandsmuseum.com This museum is not only the home of the London Bus Museum but it is also the birthplace of British Motorsport and Aviation.
• www.ltmuseum.co.uk
• http://www.beaulieu.co.uk Take a tour round Beaulieu in their Veteran Bus to see all the attractions that are on offer.
• Riverside Museum - Explore this well laid out museum with various forms of public transport including an old fashioned subway station.

Open-Top Bus Tours

• http://www.theoriginaltour.com/kids-club/ This open topped tour round London is specifically designed for kids with an activity pack included.
• http://www.city-sightseeing.com/tours/united-kingdom.htm - For over 30 open-top bus tours around the UK including Bath, Cambridge, the Isle of Bute and Belfast
• http://www.visitlincoln.com/things-to-do/bus-tour-lincoln - A free bus tour for children when accompanied by a paying adult.
• http://www.morebus.co.uk/purbeck-breezers.shtml - Watch the video for bus tours around the Purbecks including Bournemouth, Poole, Swanage and Corfe Castle

Other Links

• http://www.learn4good.com/games/driving/busdrivergame.htm - Click here to play a great game driving a bus.
• www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/bus
• http://www.partyplaybus.co.uk - A party softplay bus for hire in the London, Kent, Essex and Surrey areas.
• http://www.crazyfunbus.co.uk/ - A party softplay bus for hire based in York, covering Tadcaster, Malton, Selby, Wetherby, Harrogate, Leeds and surrounding areas .
• http://happyplaybus.co.uk/ - A party softplay bus for hire operating in and around the Bristol and South Glos, and North Somerset area