Do you use bucket fillers in your classroom? The bucket filler system comes from the books How Full is Your Bucket? by Tom Rath and Mary Reckmeyer and Have You Filled a Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud and David Messing. These books reinforce kind behavior and thinking of other people’s feelings.
Bucket Filling in the Classroom
I use the bucket filling system in my kindergarten classroom from the first day they walk into my room. We read one of these books on the first day of school and I show students where their bucket is. (I use these buckets that I purchased off amazon.) Students each have their own bucket and practice writing a bucket filler to one of their new friends. Because I have really young kiddos, I print their picture next to their name and leave these cards in a pocket chart near the buckets, so students can grab their friends picture and know how to write their name. As the year goes on, students remember how to spell their friends names and don’t use these as much.
Students have the option to do bucket fillers once they’re finished with an assignment or during free play time. In the beginning of the year, I only put out the bucket filler slips that have no lines so students can draw pictures for their friends. Once students can write, I slowly incorporate the slips with lines and space for pictures and the slips with only lines. Students then have the option of what slip they would like to use. Find these slips on my TpT store for free!
While I’m setting this system up in my classroom, I like to tell students that it is nice to fill people’s buckets who aren’t your best friend. I promote that we are a kindergarten family and that we are all good friends and can all fill everyone’s buckets. This way, all students get bucket fillers and not only a select few.
I try to send these slips home every couple of weeks in their Friday Folders or when I notice the buckets are getting very full.
Setting up Your Bucket Filler Station
I set my buckets up in over the door shoe organizers. This one from amazon fits the buckets perfectly! It can hold 24 buckets but depending on the age and height of your class, you may want to cut it in half so the students at the top of the organizer can be reached as well. When I did this with my class, I only had 15 students so I put all the buckets toward the bottom and hung the organizer on one of my storage closets but this year I have 18 students so my plan is to cut the shoe organizer in half and find a new spot where all student’s buckets can be reached.
On the first day, I have students color a picture of a bucket that I found on TpT in another freebie. Students get to decorate what they’d like their bucket to look like for the year. TIP: I recommend either laminating these before slipping them in to the organizer or taping them directly on the bucket. When I put these buckets on regular paper, they got crumpled and beat up throughout the year.
Last, I put the pocket chart with student’s picture and name cards next to the bucket organizer so they are easily accessible when students are choosing a friend to write a bucket filler to. I also put the bucket filler slips in one of the chart pockets or in an extra bucket for them to grab.
My students really enjoy this system as it is a way to both make others feel good and also they feel good when they get their bucket filled. How do you use bucket fillers in your room?
