Bucket Filling with Lauren Lynes

Hey there! Lauren Lynes here from Simply Second Grade! I am here today to do some "show and tell" about bucket filling! If you haven't done this in your classroom, you must! My team teaching partner and I spend a great deal of time on bucket filling and building our classroom community. If we only teach our students one thing, it is that we want them to be kind, caring, and empathetic towards others. And I can truly say that every year, our students really take care of each other, and that we become a family.

To kick off bucket filling, you will want one of these books; or if you are like me, you will have both :)

After we read and discuss the book of choice, we like to demonstrate how hurtful words or actions can't be taken back, no matter how many times we say sorry. We do this using a tube of toothpaste! As students give examples of "bucket dippers," we squeeze some toothpaste onto a plate. After the toothpaste is all squeezed out, we call students up and have them try to put the toothpaste back in the tube using a toothpick. It is really hard to do, and we can never get all the toothpaste back in... just like we can't take back hurtful words or actions. 

Next, we make two anchor charts--bucket dippers and bucket fillers. Our class always decides that we should throw away the bucket dipper chart and only display our bucket filler chart!

We also have our students do this bucket filling/bucket dipping sort. 

And to make sure our students are "bucket fillers" all year long, we have a little station where students can fill each other's buckets. All you need are some library pockets! These will serve as your students' "buckets." Then throughout the week, they can write kind notes to each other to fill each other's buckets!! 

You can find bucket filling slips and other bucket filling activities here :) If you've never done bucket filling in your classroom, you should try it out! You won't regret it! I hope everyone has a FABULOUS year!