Lesson Plan

Subject: Health Grade: One

Content (Topic): Have You Filled a Bucket Today?

Strand: Social Relationships
Topics: Making Friends, Family Relationships, Relationships in the
Classroom
Concepts: Indentifying and Expressing Feelings, Sharing, Making it a
Good Place for Learning

Foundational Objectives: Learning Objectives: Students Will:

• Students will develop habits
necessary for healthy living.
(PSVS)
• Students will better understand the
elements of social and emotional
well-being (PSVS)
• Students will treat themselves and
others with respect (PSVS)
• Value themselves as individuals
• Value friendship
• Work toward improving their self-
esteem
• Recognize the need for healthy
personal relationships with
members of their family, friends
and others in the community
• Gradually incorporate the
vocabulary for expressing feelings
and for social interaction into their
talk and writing (C)
• Develop their interpersonal skills

Assessment:
• Contribution to suggestion box for “fill a bucket” ideas
• Creation and carrying out of action plan

Common Essential Learnings (CELs):

• Communication
• Personal and Social Values and Skills
• Critical and Creative Thinking
• Independent Learning

Prerequisite Learning:
• Our actions and words effect others
• Some actions and words make us feel bad. Other actions and words make us feel
good.

Major Resources: Have You Filled a Bucket Today? book by Carol McCloud, illus.
David Messing, Teacher Tube video “Have you Filled a Bucket Today” by Angie
Wellock
 Lesson Preparation
Equipment/materials:
• Have you Filled a Bucket Today by Carol McCloud, illus. David Messing
• Bucket for demonstration
• Colourful objects to fill the bucket with (Ex. colourful balls)
• Lg. bucket picture chart, divided into small gridded squares
• “The Life of a Bucket Filler” journal for ea. student

Advanced Preparation: N/A

Presentation **This lesson may be done over a couple of days, and the closure/assessment
will be continuous, daily procedures**
Set:
• Tell students that today we are going to continue on talking about how we can make our
classroom space a nice place to be. We are not just talking about in the classroom,
though. We can make every space that we are in a nice place to be. At home, at school,
on the playground, and anywhere else we can make ourselves and others feel good.
• We are going to use this book, called Have You Filled a Bucket Today? to help us start
talking about how we can feel good, and how we can make others around us feel good,
too.
• Read Have You Filled a Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud, illus. David Messing.
• During the story:
o Page 9: Ask students to imagine their invisible bucket. They can even imagine
they are holding it right now. Ask them to think about times when they have felt
happy. Those times are when their bucket is full. Ask them to think about times
when they have felt sad and lonely. Thos times are when their bucket is empty.
o Page 13: Ask students to give you ideas about how to be a bucket filler.
o Page 15: Ask students to give you ideas about how to be a bucket dipper. Ask if
their bucket has ever been dipped into. Ask if they have ever dipped into
someone else’s bucket.
o Page 19: Ask students to think of something they could say to someone in their
family to fill their bucket.

Development:
• Ask students if they liked that story. Ask them if they think it could be true: does
everyone really carry around an invisible bucket?
• Bring out a bucket. Even though this bucket is not invisible, we will use it to see what
happens when we do or say nice or mean things to each other.
• Hand out colourful balls to students. These balls represent the good thoughts that can
fill up the bucket. Ask students to think of something they could say to me (the teacher)
to help fill up my bucket. As each student answers, they can place their ball in the
bucket, helping to fill it up. The teacher should model how they start to feel happier and
happier and better and better as the bucket gets fuller.
• About half way through the class, ask students to think of something that they could say
or do to me (the teacher) that would make me feel bad. When a student gives an answer,
spill some of the balls from the bucket. Model how sad you feel. Ask students what
they could do to make me feel better.
• Students will need to think of more ways to help fill the bucket back up.
Closure: **Depending on time allowances, this might be done the following day
• Tell students that we are going to start a class project to see if each of us can fill a
bucket each day.
• Lets start by thinking of some ideas. What are things you can do for someone or
say to someone to fill up their bucket?
• Label the bucket used for the demonstration as the “Bucket Filling Ideas” bucket.
• Students will write down their ideas on small strips of paper and fold them in half,
placing them in the bucket. They do not have to write their name on the paper.
• Start a class chart: Bucket Fillers/Bucket Dippers
• Pull ideas from the “Bucket Filling Ideas” bucket and write student answers under
the “Bucket Fillers” heading.
• Have a discussion about what “Bucket Dippers” do. Add these ideas to the chart.
• Tell students that if they are ever stuck and can’t figure out what they could do to
fill someone’s bucket, they can pull out an idea from the “Bucket Filling Ideas”
bucket, read it, and then put it back for someone else to read later. They can use
the idea from the bucket to help them think of how to fill someone else’s bucket.

• Show students the Lg. bucket picture chart divided into gridded squares. Tell
students that this is how we will keep track of our progress as a class.
• At the end of each day, you will use this journal called “The Life of a Bucket
Filler” to check if you have done something to fill a bucket each day. Show
students the journal and read a sample page. At the end of each day (perhaps at
agenda time) we will write in our journal. We will write the date first. Then we
will answer the question: “Did I fill a bucket today?”. You will write how you
did it (or draw a picture). You can also colour in the bucket on the page to show
how your bucket feels that day. If you are feeling sad or hurt, maybe you will
colour your bucket so that it is not very full. If you are feeling happy, you can
colour your bucket so that it is fuller. You can use this colouring bucket to show
how you are feeling.
• Each day, if you answered “yes” to the question, “did I fill a bucket today?”, you
can colour in one of the squares on our bucket chart. Lets see how fast we, as a
class, can fill up our whole class bucket.
• It is important to be honest. If you did something to dip into someone’s bucket
today, should you lie and say that you didn’t? No. We are working on becoming
bucket fillers! It is okay to make mistakes sometimes.
• Remember, if you are having trouble thinking of a bucket filling idea, read an idea
from our “bucket filling ideas” bucket.
• Students will receive “The Life of a Bucket Filler” journal to keep in their desk.
• From now on, if a student exhibits bucket-dipping behaviour, they will have to
draw a picture of the behaviour (and staple it into their journal?).
• If you bucket is feeling kind of empty, who could you come to for help?

Extensions: Make time for students to fill out their journals each day. Use bucket-filling
and bucket-dipping language when dealing with positive or negative social scenarios.
Students will be using bucket-filling behaviour if they work to keep the promise they
made to the class for the “Pebbles of Promise” lesson. As the bucket chart gets fuller and
fuller, ask students: does the classroom feel like a more positive place with a fuller
bucket?
Adaptive Dimension: Students with behaviour issues can be encouraged to work on
small bucket-filling goals.























































































Inside Cover:

“Through sweet, simple prose and vivid illustrations, this heartwarming book
encourages positive behaviour as children see how very easy and rewarding it is
to express kindness, appreciation, and love on a daily basis.”
The Life of a Bucket Filler:
That’s You!

Name:_______________
Date:_________

Did I fill a bucket today? YES NO

How?_________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________

How full is my bucket?

Date:_________

Did I fill a bucket today? YES NO

How?_________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________

How full is my bucket?

Grade Ones are Bucket-Fillers!

**Suggested use of chart paper to ensure chart is big enough