Kindergarten Perseverance Lesson

We started a new lesson in kindergarten today! We are learning about perseverance. I like to teach this concept in K because so many things are new and difficult- learning letters and numbers, interacting with friends, enduring a full day of school, trying to make Track Club, etc. Perseverance is an important part of academic success, and lays the foundation for future goal-setting, problem-solving, and career-related skills.

In our lesson, I will introduce perseverance as a magic word that can help our students do the things they want to do. I'll define it as trying your best and not giving up, even when things are hard. We'll read the classic book The Little Engine That Could (which I love because it includes the catchy positive self-talk "I think I can! I think I can!" and it usually mesmerizes students at this age) and learn a song to help them remember what perseverance means. Finally, students will draw and write something they will be able to do if they persevere. You can look for that sheet to come home with your child. If you'd like to sing the perseverance song with them, the "lyrics" are typed on the bottom of the page! The tune is from that simple song "Are you sleeping, are you sleeping, Brother John, Brother John?"

This week I'll see D. Mitchell, Sullivan/Loper, Henry, Miller, Tindle, Henderson, and Curry. All other K classes will do the lesson next week. If you have any questions or comments about this or any other lesson, please let me know!

Thank you for reading! We are glad you are here!

Bucket-Filling Week is Next Week!

Just a reminder that next week is Bucket-Filling Week at TPS! If you have a few extra minutes of conversation time with your children this weekend, you might try to think together of a couple of thoughtful words or actions that would make other people feel special, important, loved, or respected. When your child carries out the deeds you planned, he or she can write or draw them on the paper buckets that were sent home this week, and bring them into school to be displayed in our hallways. I look forward to being inspired by the creative and unique ideas our kids document!

I hope Bucket-Filling Week is a fun opportunity for your family to talk and think about little ways to spread consideration, respect, and kindness. If you have any questions, just let me know!

Thanks very much for reading. We are glad you're here!

Kindergarten Bucket-Filling Lesson

Hello everyone! I hope you had a blessed and festive Thanksgiving with family and friends. Welcome back into the swing of things!

Tomorrow I'll start teaching our bucket-filling lesson in kindergarten classrooms. Like the last first grade lesson, we'll read the book Have You Filled a Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud, and discuss bucket-filling, bucket-dipping, and "putting a lid on your bucket" to protect your feelings when someone is being unkind to you.

Then I'll sent up a blue paper "pond" filled with paper fish. I've put a paper clip on each fish, and written an action that is bucket-filling, bucket-dipping, or putting a lid on your bucket. Kids will "go fishing" with a magnet attached to a pencil and determine if the situation they pull from the pond is bucket-filling, bucket-dipping, or using their lid. They'll drop it in (what else?) a bucket with one of those three labels. Hopefully this will help our students understand exactly what we mean by "being a bucket-filler," and also give them some good ideas for choices to make at home and school.

I'll see Henry, Miller, D. Mitchell, Wood/Sullivan, Tindle, Henderson, and Curry this week. All other K classes will take place next week. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to let me know!

Thank you very much for reading. We are glad you are here!

1st Grade Bucket-Filling Lesson

We started a new round of lessons today and they are about.... buckets! Buckets? Yes, buckets.

In all grades, we will read 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 considerate 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. This year I am also introducing the concept of "putting a lid on your bucket," which means protecting your feelings if someone is being unkind. Instead of letting their meanness hurt you, you can walk away, ignore them, ask them to stop, find other people to play with, or tell yourself that what they are saying isn't true or isn't worth worrying about.

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 we happen to celebrate in November: kindness, compassion, and caring.

For this 1st grade lesson, we will read the book, then do a sorting activity in teams to identify bucket-filling and bucket-dipping words and actions. If we have time (we usually save a lot of time for fun stuff when we are good listeners!), we'll shoot a ball into a box like a basketball hoop for naming our own bucket-filling ideas. I've also been trying to save time for a toothpaste demonstration. The basic idea of that is once we say or do something, we cannot take it back or make everything just like it was before. That is like trying to put toothpaste back into the tube! You cannot ever get it back in like nothing ever happened. Apologies are the same way; it is nice to say we are sorry, but it is better to think before we act because we cannot always take away the hurt we've caused people or repair our reputations.

I'll see Dockery, Thomas, L. Foster, Childers, Ray, Durett, Brown, and Turner this week. All other 1st grade classes will take place next week.

From January 14-18, 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!

Hurricane Sandy Project

I just got word that Englewood Elementary is heading up a drive for items to send up to New York. Dr. Robin Blackburn (one of the counselors there) says that after our tornado, her contact person up there sent down a huge 18-wheeler full of supplies for Tuscaloosa. Now, we have a chance to return the favor!

If you would like to participate, here are the details!

Englewood is collecting the following new, unused items in their original packaging:

• diapers, baby formula
• socks, gloves, underwear
• wash cloths, towels
• sheets, blankets
• garbage bags
• kleenex, toilet tissue
• cleaning supplies
• toiletries
• empty boxes and empty plastic bins for packing these items
• gift cards from Target, Home Depot, Wal Mart, and Lowe’s

Any items you'd like to donate need to be at Englewood by this Friday, November 9, at 2:00pm. We apologize for short notice, but that is when our big truck will start making the long drive to New York City!

If you only have children at Taylorville (not Englewood) please feel free to send any donated items in to me at TPS. I will drive all our donations over to EES on Friday around noon.

If you would like to volunteer your time to help with this project, or if your Sunday School class, church group, business, or other group would like to partner with Englewood, please call Dr. Robin Blackburn at 342-2644 extension 3.

K Lesson - Perseverance

We started a new lesson in kindergarten yesterday! We are learning about perseverance. I like to teach this concept in K because so many things are new and difficult- learning letters and numbers, interacting with friends, enduring a full day of school, trying to make Track Club, etc. Perseverance is an important part of academic success, and lays the foundation for future goal-setting, problem-solving, and career-related skills.

In our lesson, I will introduce perseverance as a magic word that can help our students do the things they want to be able to do. I'll define it as trying your best and not giving up, even when things are hard. We'll read the classic book The Little Engine That Could (which I love because it includes the catchy positive self-talk "I think I can! I think I can!" and it usually mesmerizes students at this age) and learn a song to help them remember what perseverance means. Finally, students will draw and write something they will be able to do if they persevere. You can look for that sheet to come home in your child's folder. If you'd like to sing the perseverance song with them, the "lyrics" are typed on the bottom of the page! The tune is from that simple song "Are you sleeping, are you sleeping, Brother John, Brother John?"

Yesterday I saw Aldridge, Brown, and Childers. All other K classes will do the lesson next week. If you have any questions or comments about this or any other lesson, please let me know!

Thank you for reading! We are glad you are here!

It is Bucket-Filling Week!

Welcome back from Spring Break, and Happy Bucket-Filling Week! Remember that your children can bring in the paper buckets sent home with them last week to document any kind deeds they've done over break or as this week progresses. Of course they can do more than two bucket-filling acts! The more the better! The paper buckets are just intended to get them excited, jump start the brainstorming, and open up a world of possible ways to make others feel special and important. If you would like any extra buckets for your child or family, there are some in the Parent Pockets outside my office, which is near the intersection of the square and circle hallways across from the student restrooms.

Thank you for your support of this and all our character education initiatives! Hope you had a wonderful break, and have a good Monday getting back in the swing of things!

Thanks for reading! We are glad you are here!

Bucket-Filling Week is March 19-23

The week immediately after Spring Break is Bucket-Filling Week at TPS! Usually we hold this event in the fall, but we were super busy with that big statewide reading initiative then, so we postponed until spring this year. We hope this will help combat "spring fever" among students, and kick off the last couple of months in a positive way!

Look for a parent letter and a sheet of two buckets to come home in your child's backpack today or tomorrow. The letter contains all the details you need to know about the week, but the basic idea is that it is an "acts of kindness" week based on the book we read in my first lesson with each class: Have You Filled A Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud.

To celebrate Bucket-Filling Week, we are asking students to make a special effort to say and do nice, friendly, respectful things for others. You can help by talking with your child about kind words and actions and brainstorming some small acts for him or her to do during Spring Break or Bucket-Filling Week. The kind deeds do not need to take place at school, they can be carried out in the neighborhood, at home, or anywhere! Students will write or draw the kind deeds they do on the paper buckets that are sent home, then bring them back to school during Bucket-Filling Week. We'll display the buckets up and down the hallways to celebrate our kindness. Please feel free to visit school March 19-23 and walk up and down the hallways to check out all the unique ways of filling other people's buckets!

If you'd like extra buckets for your child or for other family members to document their kind deeds, they will be available in the Parent Pockets right outside my office, or please let me know to send a few home with your child. Thank you very much for your support of one of our last character education initiatives this year! Your help is what makes this week meaningful and successful!

Veterans' Day Activities for Kids

A parent shared this link with me. It has several links to Veterans' Day activities for kids that could be used at home or school. Thought I'd pass it on in case you are interested!

Thanks for reading! We are glad you are here!

Kindergarten Lesson: Bucket-Filling

Tomorrow we start our first classroom lesson in kindergarten. Just like we did in 1st and 2nd grades, we will learn about bucket-filling. We'll read and discuss the book Have You Filled A Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud. Then, to make sure we understand the difference between bucket-filling and bucket-dipping, we'll give thumbs-up or thumbs-down (or jump up/crouch down) to some "real life" actions that I'll read aloud. Finally, each child will think of one thing they will do or say in his or her real life to be a bucket-filler, and draw it on a half-page sheet that should come home to you the day of his or her lesson.


I try to emphasize the fact that bucket-filling is something we do or say to all the grade levels for two reasons. First, to encourage ideas that are more specific and meaningful than just "be nice." And second, to emphasize that our goal is not just to think and feel like kind people, it is to actually act kind in ways that impact other people. Does that make sense? Thinking and feeling kind are good first steps, but to truly be a bucket-filler we need to go to the next level of examining whether what we are actually doing and saying is respectful, caring, and kind. I saw that basic premise once in a Popcorn Park character video in the district I used to work in, and it really stuck with me over the years!


I'll see Aldridge, Brown, and Childers' classes tomorrow, and all other kindergarten lessons will take place next week.


Thanks for reading! We are glad you are here!

Bucket-Filling Week Cancelled

I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago that after I finished the lessons on the book Have You Filled A Bucket Today? with all our classrooms, we would have a school-wide Bucket-Filling Week in early October to celebrate what we learned. But, this year, we are either going to cancel or postpone the festivities. We have a big reading event going on in the entire state of Alabama, and with all that preparation and activity it seems like it will be difficult to squeeze in Bucket-Filling Week! If teachers think it will fit in better, we may reschedule for January or March, or we may just look forward to next year. Thank you for your understanding and flexibility! I apologize for any disappointment!

Thank you for reading! We are glad you are here!

1st Grade Lesson

We started our first lesson in 1st grade today. We are reading the same book, Have You Filled A Bucket Today?, that I mentioned last week in the email about 2nd grade lesson. After the book, we'll play a basketball game. Tables will discuss ideas for how they can be bucket-fillers at home, on the playground, and in the classroom. Each table will get one point for their best idea, and one point for each teammate who can shoot a "basket" by throwing a ball into a copy paper box decorated with buckets. We will strive for a class goal of 30 points total, so we're all on the same "team." I will see Henry, Miller, Durrett, Payne, and Bosch's classes this week. All other 1st grade lessons will take place next week and on Tuesday, September 20th.

Thank you for reading! We are glad you are here!

2nd Grade Lesson

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.

Toys That Heal

One of my fellow school counselors at Myrtlewood Elementary has partnered up with the Brick House restaurant to lead a toy and gift card drive to benefit Tuscaloosa's Arts 'n' Autism program, whose building was destroyed in the storm. You can drop off donations of new, boxed toys or gift cards (Target, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, or any local merchant) to the Brick House restaurant. It is located across from the historic Bama Theater downtown, at 613 Greensboro Avenue. Their phone number is 722-2103. I thought I would be able to attach the fliers to this post, but it looks like I cannot do that. So, please let me know if you would like me to email them to you!

Thank you for reading! We are glad you are here!

Teddies and Traits

Somewhere amid all the recent events it became a new month with new character traits! The words for May are Honesty and Trustworthiness. We will be celebrating them here at school with books and discussions. Please feel free to highlight them at home too if you would like to! Thank you for all your support of our character education initiatives.

Our Teddy Bear Drive is going amazingly! You have really answered the call for stuffed animals for children affected by the tornado, and we appreciate it. Our staff stopped counting after we'd collected 500 animals, but they are still pouring in so who knows what the total would be now! Two of our teachers, Laura Miller and Jana Henry, and our bookkeeper Lisa Moore delivered just some of the teddy bears to the students of Holt Elementary yesterday. Here are a few of their photos from the drive so far and the introduction of students to their new stuffed animal friends yesterday. Please feel free to keep sending in bears and other stuffed animals- as long as they keep coming in, we will keep delivering them to those in need of a huggable friend!

Thank you for reading! We are glad you are here!

Clean & Green Days Cancelled

We are going to CANCEL the “Clean and Green Days” we had planned as our final school-wide service projects, and instead focus on the Teddy Bear Drive our fabulous teacher Laura Miller started for children affected by the tornado!

If you have any new or lightly used stuffed animals that you would like to donate, please have your child bring them to school. We will have collection boxes in the front lobby for a few days after school starts back up. We will distribute them to shelters and hospitals for the children who are staying there.

So, you do not need to dress your child in green on May 5 and May 18, because Clean and Green Days are CANCELLED. Thank you very much for your flexibility, and your support of the Teddy Bear Drive and all our character education initiatives!

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me! Thank you for reading! We are glad you are here!

Clean & Green Days

For our final school-wide service project of the year, we are dedicating two days to keeping our school “clean and green.” In order to emphasize good citizenship and respect for our environment (two of Alabama’s character traits), students and staff will pick up litter on our playgrounds and do other small tasks to improve our building and outdoor areas. This year we wanted to focus on service projects that our students could do with their own two hands, so this fits right in! We are dividing the school by hallways, so half our classrooms will have their Clean and Green Day on May 5, and the other half will celebrate on May 18.

Thursday, May 5—Circle and Square Hallways

Wednesday, May 18—Triangle and Diamond Hallways, Portables

Would you please help us by doing these two things?

• Dress your child in green on his or her Clean and Green Day
• Send a few plastic grocery bags (the kind you get at Publix or Wal-Mart) to your child’s teacher between now and the Clean and Green Day, so that we can use them to pick up litter.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Thank you very much for your support of all our character education initiatives! You will receive a half-page paper parent note about this project, but, since we are working with two different dates, I am leaving it to the teachers' discretion when to send it home. So the note may come home on different days from different children!

April's Character Trait

It is a new month, so we are celebrating a new character trait here at TPS! The word for April is Patience. We define this as waiting calmly when things take more time that we'd like, as well as being tolerant when difficult things happen and showing acceptance when we or others make mistakes. Throughout the month teachers and staff will be highlighting this trait with activities, discussions, and/or books. Feel free to emphasize it as home too! Thanks for your support of all our character education initiatives!

Thanks for reading! We are glad you are here!

March Character Trait

I'm so sorry I only had one post last week. Usually I try for 2-3, but last week got away from me! I apologize for my delay.

We have entered a new month, so we have a new character trait to celebrate! The trait for March is RESPECT. Of course the traditional way to define this trait is the golden rule, treating other people the way you like to be treated. I also like to describe respect as treating people and things like they are important. However you and your family define it, feel free to highlight the trait at home this month if you'd like, as we do the same at school! If you have any particular aspects of respect that you emphasize in your family, please feel free to comment on this post to share your ideas with me and other families. Thank you!

Valentines For Veterans & Troops

Wow, it is a good thing I drive a Jeep Cherokee, because we sure had A LOT of lovely valentines to share with the VA hospital and troops overseas! We ended up with all of this:

in addition to EIGHT "large flat rate" boxes from the post office! It filled the backseat and trunk of my Jeep almost completely. My husband could not believe it. Of course, we had far too many touching and adorable pieces to share them all here on the blog, but here is a sampling to warm your heart...

There were lovebugs from Mrs. Hester's class, googley eyes from Mrs. Pate's class, and jaunty heart-people from Mrs. Bosch and Mrs. Henderson's classes:

These heartfelt handprints from Mrs. Sullivan's class read "Your hands keep these little ones safe." Precious.

There were so many touching pictures and messages. Boy, our students sure have a lot of love and appreciation to share!

There were also more action-packed drawings:

And there were all kinds of crafts and treat bags. These are from Mrs. Dockery, Mrs. Singley, and Mrs. Whitehead's classes:

If these don't tug on your heartstrings, I don't know what will! Thank you for your support of this project and all our character education initiatives and service projects. We appreciate the many ways you contribute and couldn't do things like this without you. And, thank you for reading! We're glad you're here!