Bellringer Award: "Who Stayed On the Bus?"

Rhoda Ballard, Lynne Hester, Martha Jenkins & Kristi Massey; Plantersville Middle School, Lee County

Fifth Grade - Self-contained

The teacher will display a large bus on the wall. Beside the bus will be a list of familiar names (Obama, Oprah, etc.) and pictures depicting people from various occupations (doctor, waitstaff, lawyer, taxi driver, etc.) waiting at a bus stop. Students must look at the names of the people and the career pictures and decide who "got on the bus" to get where they are today. Students will move the names or pictures of the ones they believe stayed in school from the bus stop to a seat on the bus. After all of the seats on the bus are filled, the class will discuss the difference between those on the bus and those not on the bus.

This activity reaches visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners and gives them a chance to actually see how the choice to stay in school can affect their lives as adults.