Bus! Stop! {storytelling and sight words for your preschooler}

Using A Picture Book To Learn Colors, Counting, Storytelling, & Early Sight Words

Who Is This Book Good For?

This a perfect story for preschoolers and kindergartners (aged 2 to 5) who enjoy color, counting, and using their imaginations to explore and discover the art of storytelling.

What Is The Story?

This is a bold and unusual picture book that allows you to teach obvious ideas of color and shape and counting to your child. There are opportunities on each page to count the number of people and fantastical creatures on each bus that passes the boy throughout the day as he searches for the right bus to get on to head to school.

Ways To Teach Basic Storytelling Concepts And Word Recognition At Home WITH Your Preschooler

Step 1: Read the book together.

A picture book is meant to be read by you aloud to your child again, and again, and again. Each time your child will get more from the story.

So to begin, sit in a comfortable chair or on the floor on pillows. Share the story with your child. Pay attention to how she responds as you read. Does she look particularly happy in one spot of the story? Is there a question she wants to ask? Does she lean over the picture of the horse-drawn bus filled with cowboys to get a better look at all the details?

If you watch your child’s reaction as you read, you will be able to see which places are confusing and which delight. Those are both places in the story you can go back to and spend time investigating the pictures and story.

Step 2: Understanding Elements of Story–Together with your child, try to figure out what time of day is shown on each page, and how long the entire story covers

If you start at the beginning of this story, it is morning. The sky is yellow with the rising sun and children and parents are waiting to board the bus to head off to work and school. The middle few pages have a blue sky of midday, and as you move through the book, the sky begins to darken from blue to tan to orange to dark blue to black and night moves in.

Step 3: Expanding Imagination & Story Creation–Have your child find the two birds on each page of the story

On each page, there are two birds (one yellow and one red) who wait with the boy at the bus stop. You can talk with your child about the birds. Why do they wait with him as companions? Let your child’s imagination help fill in the blanks of this side-story. Do the birds stay at the bus stop all the time? Where do they live? Are they there at the bus stop to help children, and do they enjoy watching all the fantastical buses go past? Where do birds live in a big city?

Step 4: Learning Sight Words–Notice the highlighted word on each page.

Each page of the book includes one (or maybe two) short and simple sentences spoken by the boy who is waiting for the bus. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to teach early sight words to your preschooler!

Here is a list of the capitalized words from the book:

THAT
NOT
TOO
YOUR
MY
LOOK
YOU
FUN
THIS

As you read the book through with your child a second (or third) time, point out each of the words and have your child repeat the words with you. If you go through the book a number of times you will soon find that your preschooler will easily be able to say those words as you get to that part of the story. In just a short while you will discover that she can recognize those words. At this point you can start pointing the words out in other books and you could even write them on sticky notes and hide them throughout the house and pay a “find the MY word” game.

Along the way, your child will also learn “Bus!” and “Stop!” since those words are repeated so often throughout the book.

Overall this will transform the act of reading the book TO your child, into an activity you do TOGETHER. Practice storytelling with your child more and more, and you will discover a world of opportunity opening. And that is a good thing!

But first, you need to get the book!

From The Publisher

Few words are needed in this inventive and fun transportation adventure!

“Bus! Stop!” a boy yells, as his bus pulls away one early morning. He must wait for the next bus. But the next one does NOT look like his bus at all. And neither does the next one, or the next. At first, the boy is annoyed. Then he is puzzled. Then intrigued. The other buses look much more interesting than his bus. Maybe he should try a different bus after all, and he’s glad he does!

Here is a book with few words and delightful illustrations that shows very young children that trying something a little different can be a lot of fun.

(Look Inside)