This book talks about filling buckets. Although they may not be there physically, you can still fill someones invisible bucket with kind words. I would use this books to talk about kindness and have the students decorate their own bucket so that their classmates can write kind notes or identify good things that are happening around the classroom.

Lexile: AD710L

Tags:

"Pre-Internship Block"

“Children’s Book”

“Kindness/ Happiness”

Brief Review:

Have you filled a bucket today is about young children and how they can fill their bucket or dip into their own and others bucket. The book gives examples of how to be bucket fillers and bucket dippers. It shows the consequences of being good or bad.

Idea of how it can be used in a classroom:

Have you filled a bucket today could be used to show students how to be good bucket fillers or what they can do to become good bucket fillers and not bucket dippers. The teacher could have the students go around the room and fill each other’s buckets by saying nice things to each other, if a student is left out go about getting that students bucket filled as well.

Reading Level & Leveling System:

Lexile Scale

AD710L

Pre-k to Second

Book Rating:

I would rate this book a 5 because its great for students to learn how to be bucket fillers and not bucket dippers. It gives students a representation of what they are supposed to do to make themselves happy and others happy. It also goes about saying that being a bucket dipper only makes you sad in the long run.

Lexile Level: AD710L

This book by Carol McCloud would be amazing to read aloud to elementary students of all ages because of its wonderful message about kindness. The book describes how everyone has an invisible bucket and our actions and words can either fill or dip each others' buckets. This book would be perfect to teach younger elementary students about the concept of empathy. Students could easily connect to the text and create writing responses reflecting on how they can fill someone's bucket. Teachers could make each student a literal 'bucket' and students could write positive notes to their classmates to fill their buckets. This would be great to introduce students to at the beginning of the year in order to create a theme out of its message that would encourage a positive classroom environment. This book is inspirational to people of all ages and can even help teachers to remember to be intentional in their actions and words. 

Have You Filled A Bucket Today? is a great book to read the first week of school, but it's also a good read to re-introduce throughout the year. This is a great book for 1st-4th grade. This book encourages positive, kind behavior and it reminds students how easy it is to be kind to one another. A sweet idea for this book is to have kids create their own personal bucket and have every one write positive and kind things in everyone's bucket. You could hang these up in the classroom for an entire year for a nice reminder!

Lexile:AD710L