Have you filled a bucket today?


The idea of Bucket Fillers is based on the book
"Have You Filled A Bucket Today?
(A Guide to Daily Happiness For Kids)"
by Carol McCloud.



We all carry an invisible bucket that contains our
feelings. When our bucket is full, we feel great. When our bucket is empty, we feel sad.

A bucket filler is someone who says or does nice things for other people. By doing this, they are filling other people's buckets and filling their own bucket at the same time.

On the other hand, a bucket dipper says or does things to cause other people to feel bad. A bucket dipper empties their bucket when they say and do mean things.

  To promote the act of bucket filling in our class, each student is given his or her own bucket. The buckets are kept on a bookshelf in the back of our classroom.  Small, multi-colored pom-poms are used to fill the buckets. 

When a student fills a classmate's invisible bucket, both the bucket filler and the person whose bucket was filled get to add a pom-pom to their buckets.  When a student fills a classmate's bucket, he or she is also filling his or her own invisible bucket because it feels good to make others happy.

Everyone is encouraged to fill people's invisible buckets by saying or doing nice things for others. 

This activity is purely a positive one.  While students may face other consequences when they act as bucket dippers, I do not remove pom-poms from their buckets.  My goal is to promote bucket filling and not use this activity as a way to punish students for their behavior.

I was researching different character development programs for my classroom and I found the Bucket
Fillers idea from Miss Powell's and Mrs. Newingham's Classroom websites.