Fun bus activities: bus recreations that liven up field trips and school excursions
Introducing “bus rec” activities for children in daycare, kindergarten, and elementary school! As the pleasant season approaches, the much-anticipated field trip day for kids is on its way.
For many children, it may be their first time riding a bus to visit an aquarium or a zoo with friends.
In this article, we’ll introduce “bus recreation” activities—games you can play on the bus to make the trip even more fun.
All of them are simple to prepare and have easy rules, so if you’re wondering how to keep kids engaged on the bus, give these a try.
They’re also great for livening up the bus on school trips!
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Fun bus activities: Bus recreations that liven up field trips and school excursions (1–10)
10-second game
This is a stopwatch-based game called the “10-Second Game.” At the signal “Start!” press the stopwatch.
Without looking at the running time, count to ten in your head, and stop the stopwatch when you think ten seconds have passed.
Naturally, the person who stops it exactly at 10.00 seconds wins! But does anyone actually manage to hit exactly ten seconds…? Let’s decide the winner by whoever is closest—whether it’s in the 9-second range or the 10-second range—and have the person farthest from 10 seconds do a penalty game!
Fingerplay ‘Obentō Bus’
Since we’re riding the bus, let’s sing and play the bus fingerplay song “Obentō Bus”! We’ll sing and use our hands to show the numbers 1 to 10 with foods that go in a lunchbox.
For example, “1” is strawberry, “2” is carrot, “3” is cherry—simple, familiar foods for children.
As we sing, we show the numbers with our fingers.
It could also be fun to arrange the song and swap out the foods for other items from 1 to 10.
tic-tac-toe
As one of the bus activities, how about a true/false quiz that lets everyone learn bus rules and manners in a fun way? Because it’s game-like, kids are likely to pay close attention.
It could be exciting if you include exaggerated “don’t do this” examples, like the pre-ride videos at Universal Studios.
Fun bus activities. Bus recreations that liven up field trips and school trips (11–20)
Word association game
Games to play on the bus aren’t much fun if they end too quickly, right? It’s best when you can keep playing for a long time and suddenly realize you’ve already arrived at your destination! With this word-association game, you can keep it going as long as everyone’s vocabulary allows.
For example, if the prompt is “When you think of apples…,” you might answer “tasty” or “red,” saying whatever comes to mind from “apple.” If someone answers “red,” then the next person starts from “When you think of red…” and continues the chain to the next player.
I wonder what’s inside the bag?
This game is always exciting and fun.
On the bus, prepare a transparent bag and put various items inside.
The person guessing should wear a blindfold, gently put their hand into the bag, and try to figure out what’s inside.
Friends around them must not say the answer.
Let’s liven things up by giving hints! If you pass the bag in order starting from the front seats of the bus, everyone can enjoy it.
Group singing
Singing together in unison on the bus is truly a lot of fun.
You can make a songbook before the field trip and sing from that, sing songs you’re currently learning at school, or sing action songs while doing the hand motions—any of those work! It’s wonderful how singing builds excitement for the trip.
Singing a cappella is great, and it’s also lovely if the teacher brings along a melodica or similar instrument to accompany everyone.
Rhythm Game “The Greengrocer”
Let’s have some fun on the bus with the rhythm-and-clap game “The Greengrocer”! It’s a very simple game: players take turns naming things you’d find at a greengrocer.
If it’s something that belongs there, everyone claps; if it’s something that doesn’t, no one claps.
Simple as that.
But once the list gets long or the tempo speeds up, people start clapping by mistake—so funny! You can also switch it up and play with a bakery, a fishmonger, and more for extra fun.