Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

All-Electric Mobile Preschool Brings Programming to Colorado

  • By Yvonne Marquez
  • 09/28/20

A Colorado non-profit will launch a mobile preschool experience in October for families with children ages 3 to 5 years old who do not attend a traditional preschool program. Vail Valley Foundation’s YouthPower365, along with Winnebago’s Specialty Vehicle Division, unveiled an all-electric, emission-free vehicle called the “Magic Bus” Mobile Preschool.

Vail Valley Foundation’s YouthPower365, along with Winnebago’s Specialty Vehicle Division, unveiled an all-electric, emission-free vehicle called the “Magic Bus” Mobile Preschool.

The all-electric bus will join a gas-powered counterpart to serve neighborhoods in Eagle County, Colorado beginning Oct. 5. Classes will be an hour-and-a-half long, four days a week and free of charge to help make early childhood learning available to as many children and families in the community as possible.

“The children and families served by the Magic Bus need to be kindergarten-ready even considering the current crisis,” YouthPower365 PwrUp Senior Manager Kendra Cowles said in a press release. “The Magic Bus plays a critical role in preparing them to successfully transition to school.”

Children will be able to take part in songs, read-alouds, exercise games and vocabulary-building activities in English and Spanish to help prepare fore kindergarten.

 “The bus is customized to operate as a center-based preschool classroom, complete with dramatic play and kitchen areas, building blocks and plenty of dinosaurs,” Cowles says.

The Magic Bus is comprised of Winnebago Industries’ standard J33SE zero-emission commercial vehicle and utilizes Motiv Power Systems’ all-electric EPIC Ford F-53 chassis. Summit Bodyworks worked on the vehicle upfit.

“We are pleased to see our all-electric vehicle platform being used to provide early childcare programs for Eagle County’s low-income families. The all-electric vehicle will enable operation in a quiet, emission-free manner,” Robert Kim, Director of the Winnebago Industries Specialty Vehicle Division, said in a press release.

COVID-19 protocols such as social distancing, face masks, frequent hand washing and cleaning will take place on the bus.

About the Author

Yvonne Marquez is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. She can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • Minnesota District Starts Construction on Early Childhood Learning Center

    Sauk Rapids-Rice Public Schools in Sauk Rapids, Minn., recently announced that construction has begun on a new early childhood learning center and a new outdoor activities complex, according to a news release.

  • Architectural Power for the Modern Campus Landscape

    For generations, an outdoor classroom only required a textbook and a patch of grass. Today, not only has the laptop replaced the printed pages, the rise of agile learning has turned campuses into study halls with students listening to lectures and researching topics from quads, gardens, and plazas. The challenge for architects and facility managers is to provide connectivity without cluttering the landscape with visual eyesores or creating safety hazards with extension cords.

  • URI Cuts Underwater Ribbon on New Ocean Robotics Laboratory

    The University of Rhode Island recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new Ocean Robotics Laboratory at its Narragansett Bay Campus, according to a news release. Two students used a remotely operated vehicle to cut an underwater ribbon in a 30-by-20-foot test tank.

  • Myrtle Grove Elementary

    Phased Construction Keeps Students on Campus During Rebuild

    When Escambia County School District needed to replace most of Myrtle Grove Elementary School in Pensacola, Fla., it had three distinct challenges: honor the school's legacy in the community, bring state-of-the-art learning environments to the county, and be seamlessly built on the same site as the active school campus.