Topic:
Have you filled a bucket today?
LT focus:
- Anti-bullying
- Respect
- Kindness
Introduction
- Discuss how we can make our classroom, our school, our homes etc. a nice place to be.
- Read a story called Have You Filled a Bucket Today? By Carol McCloud to the class.
Development
- Tell students that the word bucket is used to describe our emotional self. If the bucket is full, we are happy. If the bucket is empty, we are sad.
- Review key ideas from the story, focusing on positive and negative comments. Positive comments are those that are uplifting and make people feel good, while negative comments are put-downs and do not make people feel good about themselves.
- Point out that every interaction we have with people either fills or empties their buckets
- Pass out examples of “Bucket Fillers” and “Bucket Dippers”. E.g. Saying good morning to your teacher or classmates. (Filler). Hurting someone with your hands (Dipper)
- Give each student a turn to come up to the anchor chart and place their label in the correct column.
- Discuss what makes each a bucket filler or dipper and why. If it is a bucket dipper, discuss what could be done instead to make it a bucket filler.
Plenary
- Either at the end of the lesson or the next day, ask students to share the “Bucket Filling” activities that they are noticing and how they made them feel. Ask how they felt when they filled a bucket. If anyone experienced “Bucket Dipping,” ask how that made them feel.
- Once the students have understood the Bucket Filler concept, Each student could be given a bucket in the class where their classmates could place bucket filler note. An additional lesson could be done on the rules of writing bucket filler notes.
Other teacher resources for teaching this topic:
Resources
PDF version of the story – Have you filled a bucket today?
http://www.easton.k12.ma.us/document_center/moreau/Have_You_Filled_a_Bucket_Today.pdf
Video of the story.