A Spooktacular Book & School Bus Painting!
After reading Lisa Trumbauer’s “The Haunted Ghoul Bus” we decided to pair it with a simple & active art project. It involves only 3 materials…a toy school bus, poster paper & paint! It was a lot of fun to make and I think you’ll love it, so let’s get started…
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Summary of “The Haunted Ghoul Bus”
“The Haunted Ghoul Bus” by Lisa Trumbauer and illustrated by Jannie Ho is a spooky and fun book about a boy who accidentally gets on the ghoul bus instead of his school bus! He meets a variety of ghoulish characters and although he was initially quite scared, they quickly win him over. With rhyming text and adorable illustrations this book has been a favorite Halloween book in our home for many years.
How We Made a School Bus Painting…
We tend to keep the activities as simple as possible around here. We’re not interested in complicated or costly. We are also all about fostering independence. For this activity we got out a toy school bus, two poster boards and some black & orange paint. We laid both poster boards on the table, my daughter squeezed paint here, there, and everywhere onto them. Then came the best part…sitting across from each other; we pushed the toy school bus back and forth to each other through the paint!
Rolling a wheeled toy (or a ball) to your child is a great reciprocal play activity. Eye contact, turn taking, motor skills and more are worked on all while having fun. This active art activity took that to the next level by adding a messy sensory component to it!
To extend this activity my daughter initiated cleaning the school bus toy with soap and water play, then hosing it off. She had a blast doing this part too!
Wait?!? Am I Supposed To Be Making One Too?
I highly recommend getting hands on and doing art projects with your child. If you’d rather not, thats okay too, but please do not correct anything they do. If you want the art to look a certain way – make your own.
Especially if your child is little, its okay if it doesn’t turn out the way you imagined. Maybe its what they imagined. Also, its a process. They are learning. They will learn more through trial and error than if you correct them or do it for them. All they will learn if you “help” is that they didn’t do a good enough job on their own or they can’t do it; not exactly the message you want to give your kid. Am I right?!?
Believe me, I know it can be really challenging to let them make “mistakes”. Try doing the project along side them. It will allow you to focus on your own work, give them appropriate modeling of how to use the materials, and show them that you like art too! A lot of what I talk about in “What about the Sensory Mess?” applies to Art projects as well, you might wanna check it out! I love how each art has its own identity. I would suggest School Bus Painting if you’re looking for a simple and active art activity to connect with your child.
Materials We Used
- “The Haunted Ghoul Bus” by Lisa Trumbauer (from the library or buy it here)
- Poster boards
- Toy school bus (or any wheeled toy)
Click HERE for Free Printable copy (Email Subscribers Only)
How to Make a School Bus Painting?
- Lay the poster board paper on the table (or floor).
- Squeeze paint randomly onto the poster boards (we used orange & black).
- Push the toy school bus (or any wheeled toy) through the paint towards your child, and encourage them to push it back to you through the paint.
- Continue doing so until all the paint has been rolled over and you are happy with the design.
Click HERE for Free Printable copy (Email Subscribers Only)
Wait, There’s More…
I believe you can easily strengthen communication skills and foster independence all while playing and connecting with your child. To help you do this; I’ve created a FREE printable for each activity called, “Communicating & Connecting”.
It will give you a list of suggestions I’ve found very helpful as a Mom & as a special education teacher; to help you build lifelong skills. Please don’t feel obligated to do everything on the list (but if you do, you’re a rockstar 😉 ).
As a Thank You for subscribing; this is a special FREEBIE for our Email Subscribers Only. 🙂 Click here if you’ve already subscribed. Otherwise, Sign Up below to get the password & access to our entire FREE Printables Library today! 😉
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