Character Education - Are You A Bucket Filler?

In order for students to engage in the learning process, they need to feel safe and accepted in their learning environment. While rules and routines work to create safe and logical boundaries for interacting in the classroom - educator to student, student to student, etc. - many educators recognize the importance of empowering their students to take responsibility for their own actions and equipping them with the tools they need to become successful contributors in the learning environment. With this goal in mind, many teachers work to promote student self-esteem and foster a positive learning environment using character education programs. The Bucket Fillers program {named for Merrill Lundren, also known as the Bucket Man, because it pulls from many of the core values and principles found in his educational programs} is a popular choice among educators and, while on the outside, the Bucket Fillers program may 'look' different from classroom to classroom, the intent and practice is the same.

At the beginning of the school year, students are taught the concept of 'bucket fillers' vs. 'bucket dippers'. Most educators recommend using Carol McCloud's book, Have You Filled a Bucket Today: A Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids. Outlining the concepts in a clear and concise way, the story encourages positive behavior and illustrates how rewarding it is to show others around us - both in word and action - love, kindness, and appreciation. Students are invited to imagine that each of us has an invisible bucket. When we are kind and compassionate to those around us, we fill their buckets, making them feel loved, accepted, and good about themselves. On the flip side, when we choose to do or say things that are inconsiderate and unkind, we become bucket dippers, 'dipping' those good feelings from the buckets of others.

As a classroom program, striving to be 'bucket fillers', students are invited and encouraged to write words of affirmation, encouragement, and praise to their classmates throughout the week, dropping the notes into their classmate's bucket. At the end of the week, students are called up to empty their physical buckets and, in reading the kind words that have been written to them, have their invisible buckets filled.

For more information on the program, we highly recommend visiting Mrs. Walker's Class, where she outlines how she uses the program in her classroom and answers lots of practical FAQs (i.e. what happens if a child's bucket is empty at the end of the week?), as well as the program site, Bucket Fillers For Life.