Bucket.

I’ve written about Books That Heal Kids before. It’s a brilliant, invaluable resource for teachers. Recently, Roxanne the amazing school counselor that writes the blog sent me the book Have You Filled a Bucket Today? I’ve heard about these bucket books, but have yet to read one or share one with my class.

Well, after reading the book myself, it seemed to fit quite nicely into our theme of peace and kindness as we discuss Dr. King this week. We read the book and brainstormed ways we could be bucket fillers at school. When you say or do something kind to someone, you help fill their bucket. When you say or do something unkind, you empty it. Here’s the magical part… by filling someone else’s bucket, you also fill your own!

We wrote one way we could fill someone’s bucket at school on paper shaped like little drops of water and I created a bulletin board for our hallway.  Standing back, looking at the display, my bucket was filled.

Mrs. D. also had the wonderful idea of making a smaller bucket for our classroom. When we see someone filling a bucket, we’ll jot their name on a small drop of water paper and place it in the bucket.  Here it is empty, by the end of the day, it was FULL!

All day long, sprouts were not only being kind, but noticing others kindness. ‘You’re filling my bucket’’ was a common phrase heard through the class. There were lots of full buckets by days end. And the best part? All those small full buckets made my bucket overflow.