It's hard to believe that it's already back to school season. And it's even harder to believe that my oldest, J, will be off to kindergarten this fall!
So, to get into the back to school spirit, I put together this simple felt school bus activity that works on different math skills, such as shapes, one-to-one correspondence, and counting. Not that he needs any extra practice in math at the moment - thanks to his hypernumeracy, he's miles ahead in math and numbers!
But this little school bus activity was a lot of fun and makes for a great busy bag to take on the go.
A version of this post originally appeared on the CBC Parents website.
What You'll Need for this Felt School Bus Activity
To make your own version of this felt shape activity, you'll need:
- Felt in yellow, red, gray, black, and white
- Scissors - To cut the felt
- 6 sided die - You'll need it to play the counting/math game.
First, you will need to cut the felt to make the shape bus. I primarily used felt scraps to make our felt shape bus since I have a lot on hand from making quiet books. Regardless of using scraps or new sheets of felt, you will need to cut the following pieces out of felt:
- 1 x square out of yellow felt (will become the front end of the school bus)
- 1 x large rectangle out of yellow felt (will become the body of the school bus)
- 2 x circles out of black felt (will become the tires)
- 2 x slightly smaller circles out of white felt (will become the hub cabs for the tires)
- 1 x octagon out of red felt (will become the stop sign for the school bus)
- 6 x small squares out of gray felt (will become the windows for the school bus)
When you are done cutting the felt, you should have the following pieces:
Making a Felt School Bus with Shapes!
At first, my boys took turns building the school bus using the felt shapes, adding the stop sign, wheels, and windows.
Here is what the shape bus looks like when fully assembled:
A fun extension, at this point, would involve singing the song "The Wheels on the Bus" while your child builds the school bus. Or, you can turn the bus into a simple math game like we did.
A Simple Math Game to Play with this Felt Shape Bus
Remember how we cut out six windows for the felt bus? Well, we used those as part of a dice rolling counting game!
To play, you will need to assemble the bus with everything except the windows. Then you simply roll the die, count out the corresponding number of windows, and add the windows to the bus. For instance, if you roll a three, then you add three windows, like so.
Or, if you roll a one, then you add only one window, which looks a bit silly, doesn't it?
And that's it! When you're done playing with this school bus activity, simply store the materials in a zipper seal bag to turn it into a busy bag, ready to take on the go. Or, you could turn it into a quiet book page.
This felt school bus activity was a great way to work on counting, one-to-one correspondence, shapes, fine motor skills, and even colors.
