The iconic yellow bus has represented educational opportunities for children and adults alike for generations. For younger kids not yet in school, it inspires curiosity about the school experience.
Organizers at the DuPage Children’s Museum in Naperville, Illinois noticed this interest and decided to create a temporary exhibit featuring the yellow bus, called “Don’t Miss the DCM School Bus.”
“We had to fill a gap until we had a traveling exhibit come in, so we had to think of something quick. And we realized that younger children whose brothers and sisters are in school really want to emulate that play,” Allison Segebarth, the museum’s interim director of marketing, told STN.
Unlike many museum exhibits, where patrons can only look and not touch, this exhibit encourages hands-on dramatic play. Aside from the bus, other notable features of the exhibit include a classroom with a blackboard and desks as well as a play area for recess.
In the school bus section, visitors can pretend to be bus drivers and crossing guards with colorful, kid-sized props and costumes. The bus is equipped with flashing lights and a functional stop arm, but according to Segebarth, this was not always the case.
“It was a train. So it was red, white and blue like a metro train and was outfitted accordingly,” she said
“We repainted it, did a little bit of construction and added some additional signage or accessories to make it into a school bus. It seems to be working well in kids’ imaginations,” she continued.
Segebarth agreed that with parental guidance, the dramatic play on the school bus part of the exhibit may teach these kids essential safety rules before they even ride the bus.
She added that the symbolic nature of the yellow bus was the foundation for the exhibit, saying, “It literally came together with the idea of the school bus being the anchor. It puts you right in the framework.”
The exhibit will be at the DuPage Children’s Museum until Sunday, Oct. 5.
