Created for Book Week 2025
Celebrate We Live in a Bus by Dave Petzold with this cross-curricular activity pack, designed to spark creativity, critical thinking and adventurous storytelling in primary classrooms.
This pack includes a mix of craft, writing and maths activities inspired by the story’s themes of travel, family and life on the road. Perfect for planning a whole-day experience or weaving into your Book Week plans!
What's Included:
Bus Craft
Cut out and assemble the pieces to create your own bus. Optional extra: draw or paint a background scene from the story to complete the design.
Open-Ended & Guided Writing Templates
Story response pages with flexible prompts
Hunting for Onomatopoeia – collect and create sound words, then design a comic strip
Listening to Country – reflect on what it means and write about sounds in nature
Persuasive Writing – would living in a bus be the best adventure or a total disaster?
My Bus Adventures – describe an imaginative road trip, including sights, sounds and feelings
Differentiated Maths Activities
Travel Timetable – calculate travel times and total hours on the road
Sharing Marshmallows – solve problems with division and sharing scenarios
Where Should We Go Next? – collect and graph class votes to decide on a destination
Mapping & Geography
Label the capital cities of Australia
Plan a journey for around the country
Respond to open-ended prompts to justify each stop on the map
Want it all?
Grab the matching We Live in a Bus slide deck to bring the story to life on your IWB. Includes writing prompts and maths tasks (linked to the worksheets), as well as additional design prompts.
Hive Members Bonus
Enjoy exclusive artwork and themed slide backgrounds to level-up your Book Week experience!