How full is your bucket? for kids by Tom Rath & mary reckmeyer
my findings:
This book is a fantastic metaphor for friendship and kindness. It has a great message, and students found it relateable.
After we read the book, we decided to literally practice filling each other's buckets.
Students were very excited to write their classmates compliments! They went above and beyond to make sure each person's bucket was overflowing with compliments.
My recommendation for this activity is be a 'bucket monitor', meaning observe which students are getting few compliment cards. As the teacher, I completed compliment cards in advance, and put these in buckets that were less full. Additionally, I challenged students who were done early to make more for different students in the class who they did not give a compliment to yet. This allowed for each students bucket to be overflowing to compliments.
My class was beyond excited to read the compliments they recieved.
We decided to make this part of our classroom routine - when student think someone deserves a compliment, they can fillout a card, and put it in that persons bucket.
This is a fantastic activity and book! I would highly recommend reading it and doing an activity that relates to it!
Rath, Tom, and Reckmeyer, Mary. How Full Is Your Bucket? For Kids. Gallup Press, 2009.