Now that I've been around to introduce myself to all classrooms and some of the beginning of the year busy-ness has settled down slightly, it is time to start our regular rotation of classroom lessons! Over the next 5 weeks, I will be teaching one lesson in each classroom. I'll start with 2nd graders this week, and work my way through 1st grade and kindergarten in the weeks to come.
The first lesson is about.... buckets! Buckets? Yes, buckets. We are reading the book Have You Filled A Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud. The basic idea is that everyone in the world has an invisible bucket, and our buckets hold our good thoughts and good feelings about ourselves. When we talk about "filling people's buckets," we mean saying and doing things to help others feel special, important, and loved. Bucket-dipping is the opposite: saying and doing unkind things that make others feel un-special or unimportant. The lessons will encourage students to think of ways that they can be bucket-fillers for classmates, parents, siblings, teachers, and other people in their lives. The bucket-filling concept is a great tool for friendship and social skills development, and it also ties in with our state's character education initiatives, particularly the traits of kindness, compassion, and caring.
As part of the 2nd grade lesson, we will play a class game of tic-tac-toe on the board. I will ask students to name things they can do to be bucket-fillers throughout a typical day (for example, on the bus, at play time, with parents, with teachers, with siblings, etc). If they can share a unique way to fill other people's buckets that we haven't heard yet, we'll write it up on the tic-tac-toe board in their team's color (to take the place of an X or an O). I'll see Dover, Frith, Hamner, Johnson, Singley, Horst, Smelley, Bowlin, and Phillips' classes this week. All other second grade classes will take place next week.
From October 3 - 6, the whole school will celebrate Bucket-Filling Week. I will send home a page of two buckets with each student, and they will be asked to make a special effort to say and do caring things for the week. Students and family members can document their kind deeds on the paper buckets, then bring them back to school. We will hang them in the hallways so everyone can take note of our caring acts!
Lastly, if you did not receive the brochure, half-page parent note, and full-page sign up form for the counseling program's email and backpack mail lists, please let me know! These were distributed over the first three weeks of school when I visited each classroom to introduce myself. If I missed you somehow, I'd be happy to send them home with your child.
The first lesson is about.... buckets! Buckets? Yes, buckets. We are reading the book Have You Filled A Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud. The basic idea is that everyone in the world has an invisible bucket, and our buckets hold our good thoughts and good feelings about ourselves. When we talk about "filling people's buckets," we mean saying and doing things to help others feel special, important, and loved. Bucket-dipping is the opposite: saying and doing unkind things that make others feel un-special or unimportant. The lessons will encourage students to think of ways that they can be bucket-fillers for classmates, parents, siblings, teachers, and other people in their lives. The bucket-filling concept is a great tool for friendship and social skills development, and it also ties in with our state's character education initiatives, particularly the traits of kindness, compassion, and caring.
As part of the 2nd grade lesson, we will play a class game of tic-tac-toe on the board. I will ask students to name things they can do to be bucket-fillers throughout a typical day (for example, on the bus, at play time, with parents, with teachers, with siblings, etc). If they can share a unique way to fill other people's buckets that we haven't heard yet, we'll write it up on the tic-tac-toe board in their team's color (to take the place of an X or an O). I'll see Dover, Frith, Hamner, Johnson, Singley, Horst, Smelley, Bowlin, and Phillips' classes this week. All other second grade classes will take place next week.
From October 3 - 6, the whole school will celebrate Bucket-Filling Week. I will send home a page of two buckets with each student, and they will be asked to make a special effort to say and do caring things for the week. Students and family members can document their kind deeds on the paper buckets, then bring them back to school. We will hang them in the hallways so everyone can take note of our caring acts!
Lastly, if you did not receive the brochure, half-page parent note, and full-page sign up form for the counseling program's email and backpack mail lists, please let me know! These were distributed over the first three weeks of school when I visited each classroom to introduce myself. If I missed you somehow, I'd be happy to send them home with your child.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please feel free to share your feedback! Of course, you are always welcome to call or email me to share your thoughts less publicly as well. :)