Bucket Filers

Bucket Fillers: A Classroom Management Philosophy

Bucket filling is a concept taught through a wonderful book called Have You Filled a Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud. It teaches us that everyone has an invisible bucket that holds our good feelings and good thoughts about ourselves. When our bucket is full we feel happy and when our bucket is empty we feel sad and lonely.

Bucket fillers do things that fill others' buckets. Filling a bucket is as easy as using good manners or smiling at someone as you pass by. People fill their own buckets by filling others' buckets. Essentially, its nice to be nice.

Bucket dippers are bullys. They think they can fill their own bucket by being rude or mean to others. By dipping out of others' buckets they are also dipping out of their own. A bucket dipper's bucket is never full.

I use this book to introduce my rules and prodecures at the beginning of the school year. I also tend to re-visit this book many, many times throughout the school year as needed. I display posters around the classroom as well as a small bucket with the words "Have You Filled a Bucket Today?" in order to constantly remind my students of the important concepts in this book.