We Are Bucket Fillers

On Monday, we read a book called, "Have You Filled a Bucket Today?"  It is written by Carol McCloud and is illustrated by David Messing.  The story teaches children that every person in the whole world carries around an invisible bucket every day.  When you do the right thing and when you are kind to other people, you fill their bucket and you fill your own bucket as well.  When you say mean things to people or when you hurt their feelings, you dip into their bucket, but you do not fill your own bucket (it would be empty).  Our class decided that we all want to be bucket fillers and we discussed ways in which we could fill other people's buckets.  

Our Buckets

The students now have their own special bucket hanging up in the classroom.  If I catch them doing something kind for a friend or being a bucket filler in other ways, I will let them put a "warm fuzzy" in their buckets.  Warm fuzzies are colorful pom-poms that go in the buckets.  Any time students fill their buckets with 10 warm fuzzies, they will get a certificate from me that recognizes meeting their goal.  They can color in their certificate and proudly display it at home.  Then, they start back over.

Warm Fuzzies!

The buckets are goals for students to reach individually.  We are also working towards a goal of earning 20 warm fuzzies as a whole class.  We earn warm fuzzies as a whole class when we get compliments from Dr. Parker, other teachers, parents, or special visitors in the school.  For example, if we are all walking in our 5S line in the hallway, and a teacher compliments our class, we earn a warm fuzzy for the class.  After we reach our goal of 20 warm fuzzies, we will celebrate by wearing our pajamas to school!  We earned one compliment today, so only 19 more to go!

Our Class Warm Fuzzy Jar

Talk with your children about the book, "Have You Filled a Bucket Today?" and ask them how they can be bucket fillers at school and at home.  This new system in our classroom will be giving students lots of positive feedback (and it feels so great to get that feedback!).