It’s always helpful to get to know your students at the beginning of the year. Here’s one bulletin board idea that will help each student express themselves and be a part of the classroom. First, have the students make their bus (using the directions in this post and printed on the page below the bus).

Click here for the free printable: Back To School Bus Bulletin Board

Decorate your bus according to these directions:

1. Draw each member of your family inside the bus. Make sure to draw yourself in the first window. You may need to put more than one family member in a window if your family is large.  Use colors to decorate the people.
2. Write your name inside the stripe in the middle of the bus.
3. Draw each of the following things in the bottom section of the bus:
   1. Your favorite food
   2. Your favorite school subject
   3. Your favorite thing to do outside of school
   4. What you want to be when you grow up
4. If you prefer ice cream instead of cake, draw stripes in the wheels. If you prefer cake instead of ice cream, draw dots in the wheels. Use your favorite color.
5. Color in the top section of the bus (above the stripe and around the windows) using your favorite color.

Once all the students finish, have each student present their bus to the rest of the class. If your class is large, limit each student to 1 minute to share or allow students to only share their bus with those near them. Then put each bus up on a bulletin board and call it something clever (“Mrs. Smith’s Superstar Fleet”, “Travelling Down the Road to Success”, or something…).