After spending a great deal of time designing and creating a functional bus to drive around the classroom, we were ready to hit the road! After a few bumps, collisions and tight corners, we asked the children what we could do to help the bus get easily around the classroom. A couple children said, “We need a road!” and “Stop signs!” This led the direction of the next phase of our study.
A few children volunteered to help make traffic signs for the road. Using the transportation signs that are in our classroom for provocation, as well as the book, I Read Signs, by Tana Hoben, they worked in the TinkerLab to create signs. A pedestrian walk sign, a stop sign, traffic lights, and a bus stop were designed. Some traffic lights were tradition while others, had speciality lights such as, “a purple light that tells you when the bus needs gas.” These students brought the signs back into the classroom to show their peers. We asked how we could put them up as signs. Some children grabbed large hollow blocks and suggested we tape the signs to the blocks. We did just that. Now it was time for the road.
A few children volunteered to help make traffic signs for the road. Using the transportation signs that are in our classroom for provocation, as well as the book, I Read Signs, by Tana Hoben, they worked in the TinkerLab to create signs. A pedestrian walk sign, a stop sign, traffic lights, and a bus stop were designed. Some traffic lights were tradition while others, had speciality lights such as, “a purple light that tells you when the bus needs gas.” These students brought the signs back into the classroom to show their peers. We asked how we could put them up as signs. Some children grabbed large hollow blocks and suggested we tape the signs to the blocks. We did just that. Now it was time for the road.
We initially used tape to designate our parking spot for the bus and thought it would be a good idea to do the same for the road. Students worked together to lay out tape as the boundary for the road. The children realized the only way to know how far apart to make the tape from each side was to put the bus in the middle of the road and tape around it. This is a beginning step in measurement. PK children do not yet think to measure the width of the bus and then transfer that width to the road, however, when the width of the bus is visually right on top of the road, they could tape the road around it.
We remembered that we had access to some tile floor samples that locked together and were just slightly larger than the width of the bus. The teachers thought these would make a perfect road. In small pairs, the children worked to lay the tile down in between the tape boundaries and lock the road pieces together. The street signs were put out and the bus was ready to roll! We’ve been having a blast driving around the classroom, with passengers hopping on and hopping off.
On Thursday, the day had finally come to ride a city bus! We had been counting down all week and couldn’t wait to ride the number 8 Halsted bus. We bundled and buddied up as we traveled down Fulton to Halsted to reach the Halsted and Lake bus stop. Using a bus tracker app, we counted down the minutes, observing that the number of minutes on the app were getting smaller and smaller as the bus got closer and closer. We were happy to see plenty of seats available as we got on to the bus allowing the children to look out the window. We noticed that the seats were blue, just like in the photos we had researched ahead of time. We listened for the Madison stop, and many children reached up to ring the bell!
On Thursday, the day had finally come to ride a city bus! We had been counting down all week and couldn’t wait to ride the number 8 Halsted bus. We bundled and buddied up as we traveled down Fulton to Halsted to reach the Halsted and Lake bus stop. Using a bus tracker app, we counted down the minutes, observing that the number of minutes on the app were getting smaller and smaller as the bus got closer and closer. We were happy to see plenty of seats available as we got on to the bus allowing the children to look out the window. We noticed that the seats were blue, just like in the photos we had researched ahead of time. We listened for the Madison stop, and many children reached up to ring the bell!
When we arrived at Mariano’s we split into groups to locate bread, hot chocolate, and milk. We knew we needed the bread for that afternoon’s lunch but the hot chocolate and milk were an added treat for our snack after the field trip. We made many shoppers smile as walked around the store on our mission! We met back up at the cashier and unloaded our goods.
We were thrilled to see that the transit gods had smiled upon us as we exited the market and saw the number 8 bus quickly approaching. We headed back to school ready to enjoy some warm cocoa and share our field trip stories with the rest of the Bennett Day students.
We were thrilled to see that the transit gods had smiled upon us as we exited the market and saw the number 8 bus quickly approaching. We headed back to school ready to enjoy some warm cocoa and share our field trip stories with the rest of the Bennett Day students.