Ready Kids › Out and About › Badge 3 › Lesson 3.1
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Waiting and riding
Wait for and ride a bus so that you are never near a moving wheel and never surprised by your stop.
1Watch
The bus comes in
The bus comes in
A bus stop, three kids waiting. As the bus turns in, one steps to the kerb edge to read the number, bag swinging. The bus is still moving. The film stops with the front wheel a metre from the kerb and the kid leaning out.
18 secondsThe driver is looking at the mirror and the stop line, not at feet.
2The idea
A bus is long, and the back of it swings
When a bus pulls in, the front follows the kerb and the back end swings out and then in, wider than the front. From where you stand it looks like the front is the near bit. It is not. And the driver is watching the mirror and the stop line, not the pavement.
So you wait a big step back from the kerb, and you move only when the bus has stopped and the doors are open. Not when you can read the number. Not when it looks nearly there.
3The idea
The ride, in order
Wait a big step back from the kerb.
Let it stop. Doors open. Then walk to the door.
Get on, pay or tap.
Sit near the driver, bag on your lap. Near the front is where the driver’s mirror points, so one adult whose job it is has you in view the whole way.
Watch for the stop before yours. Not roughly. Exactly.
Press the bell as the bus leaves that stop.
Get off, step back from the kerb, and let the bus pull away before you cross.
The stop before yours is the one to know. That is what puts you standing up in time, instead of running down the aisle when you spot your road.
4The idea
If you miss your stop
Say you are talking, you look up, and your road has gone past. You do not get off wherever you can and walk back. You get off at the next stop, step back from the kerb, and ring a parent from right there: “I missed my stop, I’m at the next one, I’m staying here.”
Then you stay exactly where you said. A kid who stays put gets found in five minutes. A kid who walks back is a moving target on an unfamiliar road. And while the bus is still there, you cannot see the road and the road cannot see you, so you wait for it to go before you cross.
5Decide
The bus is pulling in. Where are you?
Pick one to carry on.
6Look
Crossing after you get off
After the bus goes
A kid standing on the pavement, a bus pulling away down the road. The road behind it is now clear to see both ways.
While the bus is there, you cannot see the road and the road cannot see you. Wait for it to go. Then cross where you always cross.
7Find them
Which of these are true on a bus?
Tap the ones that count.
Find all 4.
8Build it
Put the ride in order
Order the steps
Eight cards, shuffled: wait back from the kerb, let it stop, get on, pay or tap, sit near the driver, watch for the stop before yours, press the bell, get off and step back. Tap them into the order you do them. It locks when it is right.
The card most people put in the wrong place is the stop before yours. It goes before the bell, not after.
9Say it
What you say if you miss it
Say this out loud, in your normal voice
“I missed my stop, I'm at the next one, I'm staying here”
Said down the phone to a parent, in one breath. Then you stay exactly where you said. You do not walk back.
10Do it
Before you leave this page
Look up your bus route with a parent and find the name of the stop before yours. Say both stop names out loud. Tomorrow, watch for the first one and see if you can name it before the sign comes up.
Tick it when you have done it.
Lesson done.
Back from the kerb. Sit where the driver can see you. Know the stop before yours.
Next lesson: The pickup