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 get everyone excited on field trips and school trips (21–30)
Personality test
A psychological test involves answering questions, and the choices you make reveal your true feelings.
How about incorporating this into a bus activity? Prepare a few questions and have everyone choose their answers at the same time.
Afterwards, announce, “Those who chose this answer are…” and reveal what true feelings that choice is said to indicate! People might be surprised by unexpected sides of themselves being identified, which will make things even more exciting.
Just be sure to choose psychological tests that won’t make anyone feel uncomfortable!
Three-letter shiritori
This is a shiritori game where you keep the rhythm and use words that are not three characters long.
The rules are the same as regular shiritori, except that three-character words are prohibited.
It’s sure to liven things up not only during school breaks but also in tight spaces like on a bus.
Adding variations like speeding up or slowing down the rhythm along the way can make it even more fun.
Since you don’t need any props, you can enjoy it in short pockets of free time.
Don’t Overlap Game
I also recommend the “Don’t Overlap!” game, which requires teamwork.
In this game, multiple people answer a single prompt, and if any answers overlap, you fail.
For example, if the prompt is “Characters from the Sazae-san family,” you’d fail if multiple people answer “Katsuo.” On the other hand, if everyone gives different names like “Katsuo,” “Sazae,” and “Wakame,” you succeed.
Just make sure your answers still fit the prompt—keep that in mind as you play.
Bamboo Shoot Nyoki
In this game, players clap their hands while chanting “Takenoko, takenoko, nyokki-kki,” and then, without overlapping with others’ timing, raise their hands in order saying “1 nyokki,” “2 nyokki,” and so on.
Anyone whose timing overlaps along the way, or who ends up going last, is disqualified; if you’re disqualified three times, you lose.
It’s said to have gained popularity thanks to the late-night TV show ‘Nep League.’
Kanji Quiz
You guess what the characters written on paper are referring to.
Three instances of the kanji for “interval/space” (間) are lined up: 「間間間」.
The answer is “mikan” (mandarin orange).
You present puzzles like this.
The teacher writes the puzzle on a big sheet of paper, holds it up, and has everyone on the bus raise their hands to answer—it can get lively and fun.
It’s a rather tricky game, but with children’s flexible thinking, you’ll probably get lots of amusing answers.
Ten Times Quiz
This 10-times quiz is one where you’re asked to say a certain word ten times, and then answer a question whose correct answer is completely unrelated to that word.
After repeating the same word ten times, you’ll be tempted to answer with that word or something similar, but try your best to resist.
It might serve as practice for developing the ability to stay strong and not be swayed by previous information.
Ateji Kanji Quiz
This game is a bit challenging, so it’s best suited for upper elementary grades or junior high students.
If you know lots of kanji, you can come up with all kinds of playful spellings.
For example, you could write 偽物蟹棒 and read it as “kanikama” (imitation crab sticks).
The answers probably won’t come easily, so put your heads together and think as a group.
Coming up with questions is tough too, so it’s a good idea to prepare them in advance! Including trendy words will really liven things up.