• Students will learn the proper procedure for crossing the street safely to and from the school bus
• Students will learn that poor behaviour on a school bus may impact their safety
• Students will improve their reading skills by reading the words of the cartoon-type characters in Safety Services Nova Scotia’s website, while hearing the character voices at the same time

• One or more computers with Internet access, showing the Safety Services Nova Scotia website www.schoolbussafety.ca
• (optional) yellow tape or something that will represent the yellow line on a highway
• (optional) a sign saying "bus stop"
• (optional) classroom desks or other item that will represent a school bus
• (optional) School bus driver or police officer as guest speaker

1. Introduce the subject of school bus safety and of the need to cross the street safely.
2. Depending upon the number of computers available, there can be one child per computer or children in groups at computers, going through the www.schoolbussafety.ca website.
3. Assist children in moving through the website, especially the portion of the site where the child characters are sitting on the school bus. Get the children to “click” on each child character for a safety tip.
4. Assist the children in filling in the online quiz, and help them fill out the name of your classroom, and your (teacher’s) name, to enter the online contest.
5. After the exercise with the website, review what was learned in the website via one or more of the following methods:
   • Class discussion of the website
   • Role playing. Set up the classroom desks to be the rows of seats on a school bus. Have a child in the first seat of the row of seats be the bus driver. Designate an area to the right of the “desk bus” to be the bus stop. Designate an area to the left of the row of desks to be the roadway, complete with a yellow “line” separating the two lanes. Have the children get off the “bus” at the “bus stop”. Tell them to take “10 giant steps ahead of the bus, and then stop. The child who is the bus driver will direct the others to “cross the street”. They will cross the lane in front of the “bus”, and stop at the “yellow line”. They will look up at the “bus driver” for permission to cross the remainder of the street, and then look for oncoming cars before crossing the remaining lane to their “house”.
   • A school bus driver who is comfortable with public speaking can talk to the children about his/her job, what is expected of them on the bus, and crossing the street safely.
   • A police officer can be invited to speak to the children about crossing the street safely.

In previous years, the school bus website has been accessed by children in Grades 7-8, for whom the website is not appropriate. Safety Services Nova Scotia would like the suggestions of teachers in developing more challenging products for students in these grades. Contact Arminta Kennedy at kennedy@safetyservicesns.ca with your thoughts.

In the interim, if teachers would like to involve their Grade 7-8 classes (or even younger grades) in School Bus Safety Week activities of some type other than the website, may we suggest the following:

Developing Interviewing Skills Objectives

• Students will broaden their ability to work in groups as a team
• Students will develop planning skills
• Students will develop skills in obtaining information that is not immediately available through texts or websites (i.e., by asking the "right" questions of the interviewee)
• Students will continue to develop skills in report writing
• Students will continue to develop presentation skills
• Students will gain an appreciation for the numerous people involved in some aspect of school bus safety

• An interviewee (i.e., police officer, school bus driver, school board transportation coordinator, school bus mechanic, etc.) who is available for a series of interviews by the class(es)
• A broad interview topic which will be explored in greater depth via the interview (see "suggested guests and topics" below)
• A quiet room where the interviews can take place - or an "onsite" interview, such as at a school bus garage, if the garage is conveniently located.
• Notebooks, pens, a computer if necessary

• Teachers will decide the most "workable" format for the interview process
• Teachers will contact an interviewee and ask them to commit some time to be interviewed by students on a topic related to school bus safety
• Prior to the interview, teachers will break up the class into groups, and assign them to plan for their interview and prepare a list of questions.
• Teachers will schedule appropriate times for each group to do the interviews
• Following the interviews, the students will work in their group to prepare a report on the interview
• If teachers feel that each group should present their findings to the class as a whole, presentations to the class can be arranged.

Police Officer - Illegal Passing Of School Buses

Sample Questions:

• What is illegal passing of a school bus?
• How do you "pull over" a driver who has passed the school bus?
• What do you say to the driver after you pull them over?
• What is the penalty for illegally passing a school bus?
• What does a ticket for illegally passing a school bus look like?
• What if the driver does not believe they passed the school bus illegally? Can they refuse to pay the ticket?

Sample Questions:

• How long have you been a school bus driver?
• What training did you have to take?
• Do you have to get medical tests or eye tests?
• What job or jobs did you have before you became a school bus driver?
• Why did you take a job as a school bus driver?
• What is the best part of your job? What is the hardest part of your job?
• Is driving a bus harder than driving a car?

Sample Questions - School Bus Routing

• How does a transportation coordinator plan where all the buses will go to pick up students?
• Is it difficult to make sure that all the buses get the children to school on time for their first classes?
• What is a routing system? How does it work?
• What happens if a student wants to go on a different bus in the afternoon to go to a friend's house?

• How many bus stops does our school board have?
• What things do you have to think about when choosing a place to make a bus stop?
• What are the steps in deciding whether a certain place is a good location for a bus stop?
• Do you ever change a bus stop to another location? Why?
• How far apart must bus stops be?

Sample Questions:

• Why did you become a school bus mechanic?
• What training did you need for this job?
• Can a car mechanic be a school bus mechanic or do you need different training?
• What is the best part of your job? What is the hardest part?
• What are the safety features on a school bus?
• How often do you have to fix a bus?
• How often does a school bus get a motor vehicle inspection? (A car gets an inspection once a year).