Are You a Bucket Filler?

I am excited to join Brenda from Primary Inspired and Ciera from Adventures of Room 129 for their Back to School Book Link-Up! 

This year, we start school Tuesday, August 11. This means that the first week of school will consist of four days. Yikes! In the past, we've started on Wednesday or Thursday. If you've ever endured the first week of school, you know that this extra day will really add to the stress of the week.

I'm so excited of this link-up to help me have fantastic back to school books and activities ready to go in case I need them. Oh, and...I forgot the best part: every activity in this link-up are offered FOR FREE in the teacher-bloggers' TpT stores! Yay! 

My favorite back to school read aloud is definitely How Full is Your Bucket? by Tom Rath. For my first graders, this is a perfect avenue to reinforce how our behaviors impact others around us. And, it gives us verbiage to use throughout the year to remind one another to be kind. 

Scholastic - only $4.46!

SHARE THE STORY

The story is about Felix, a boy who struggles to stay in a good mood throughout the day. His grandfather uses the metaphor of "filling buckets" to illustrate to Felix how his actions impact others. 

My favorite part of the story is that it explains that, by filling someone else's bucket, you're actually filling your own, too! I love that discussion of giving to others makes you feel better, too! 

DISCUSSION & ANCHOR CHARTS

After we read the story, we discuss actions that are bucket fillers and actions that are bucket dippers. We make an anchor chart to display that list both types of actions. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of my past charts. But, here are examples of what first graders brainstorm: 

Bucket Fillers: inviting someone to play on the playground, sitting next to someone at lunch, helping clean up a spill, working hard at school, listening to directions the first time, smiling and waving when you see someone you know, etc. 

Bucket Dippers: ignoring friends, excluding friends on the playground, hands and/or feet not kept to yourself, etc. 

Last year, I implemented the "Looks Like, Sounds Like, Feels Like" format for a lot of our procedures including bucket filling, Daily 5 and writing workshop. I really liked the breakdown for my first graders. For bucket filling, the discussion went like this: 

Looks Like: friends helping each other, students working hard, students working together, teachers helping students, everyone smiling

Sounds Like: compliments, kind words, invitations ("Would you like to...?"), friendly tone of voice, manners, encouragement

Feels Like: safe, happy, caring, helpful, comfortable, kind

My biggest advice is to let the students generate these ideas. As every teacher does on a regular basis, we can lead them to what we want them to say. BUT, let them discuss - it's so much more powerful when they can determine the expectations!

My freebie for this link-up includes headers for your anchor chart! Yay! 

WRITTEN RESPONSE

After our class discussions, I allow students to reflect upon themselves as bucket fillers with a writing activity. I do this with two different prompts: I Can Fill a Bucket! and I am a Bucket Filler! I like to include choice wherever I can in my classroom, so I give the kids a choice with these prompts.

The forever freebie I have for you includes these two writing prompts. It also includes sentence starters for each prompt for your little friends, if you think they should need them!

Click on the image to download your forever freebie!

COLLABORATION ACTIVITY

The term collaboration is one that is super important in my classroom. I start this culture right away the first week of school. This book allows me to do it in a fun way! The day after we read How Full is Your Bucket?, we discuss collaboration. We define it as friends working together to reach a goal. Then, we go outside and become actual bucket fillers! 

Here's what you'll need: 

• Two large buckets (think mop buckets like this one)
• One of these will need to start out full of water
• The other will need some sort of "Fill To" line here
• One small plastic cup for each student

Students stand in a line, each holding his or her empty cup. When you say, "Go!" - the student closest to the full bucket dips his or her cup in and then transfers the water to the next person -- this movement goes on down the line until the last person in the line dumps the water to the empty bucket. The task is complete when the water reaches the "Fill To" line.  

Hopefully, you can grasp a better understanding with photos from last school year's fun!

I hope that How Full is Your Bucket? is a valuable addition to your back-to-school fun. I certainly can't wait to read it with this year's class!

Check out these other teachers' forever freebies for your back-to-school needs!

An InLinkz Link-up

My Teaching Quirk

Quirks. Oh, boy.

There is not enough space in all of the dub dub dub (world wide web) to describe my quirks. As my very favorite teaching friend The Crazy Schoolteacher once told me, "It will take a special, special man to put up with you and all of  your quirks for the rest of his life." Seriously. That happened.

So, naturally, I'm linking up with I Heart Grade 3 and her Weekly Summer Link-Up. This week, you guessed it, is all about teaching quirks!

I'm sure that my first grade teammates, my past students and their parents can tell you a laundry list of quirks about me as a teacher. But, I'll narrow it down to two quirks.

Quirk #1

The first teaching quirk that comes to mind is my classroom signals. My other first grade teachers make comments regarding my signals. "Oh, I bet you have a signal for that!" Seriously, whatever they're referring to, I do probably have a signal. In my classroom, I love signals! Why would I want to interrupt our learning flow to address something silly like allowing a child to use the restroom? Also, with signals, students can express their very, very, very, very important ideas without us interrupting our learning twenty-six times. Most of the signals each year arise naturally, and they're often kid-created. For example, this past year, I found myself saying "It's your job to worry about you. It's my job to worry about everyone." So, finally, one day, I said that I was tired of saying that all the time. The students suggested that we come up with a signal. So, voila! We decided that when I tapped my brain and then my chest, it meant, "Worry about yourself."

That's just one example! We have signals for bathroom breaks, pencil sharpening, "I'm thinkin' what you're thinkin'," "I didn't know that!," and sooo many more. Signals help keep our learning flowing naturally, and it helps reinforce our classroom community with signals that act as "talk moves" and help us to deepen our discussions.

Quirk #2

The other big teaching quirk that sticks out to me is my overuse of the word "friends." I refer to my students as "friends." I didn't realize this until last school year after my principal was in my classroom for an observation. At the end of the day, as we were walking to the buses, I heard my principal call a group of students "friends." Then, she said, "Oh! I just called you all 'friends' - I sound just like Miss Cannady!"

I assume that this quirk came about because I do not like addressing my students as "kids." I certainly am not a fan of "kiddos." Please, don't hate me if you're a kiddo-er. It's just not my cup of tea.

I use this word without even knowing that I'm doing it now -- both in and out of the classroom, among children and adults alike. The cashier at Hobby Lobby? She's a friend. The baseball player on TV? He's a friend. The crazy lady pumping gas in her pajamas and wet hair? Also a friend. My actual real-life adult friends? Yes, I call them friends. Out loud. To their faces. Oops.

What's YOUR teaching quirk? Can you pick just one?

Daily 5 & Behavior Management

I am absolutely loving the Back to School Weekly Linky from Miss V's Busy Bees and Mrs. D's Corner! I think that the idea is brilliant! Lots of teachers sharing ideas about specific components of our classroom. Perfect!

I decided to jump in this week with a post regarding behavior during Daily 5. Now, you may be thinking, "But, wait! Daily 5 is all about students engaged and on task. They will never, ever, ever, ever, ever misbehave during Daily 5. You are absolutely able to work with small groups without worrying about the others in the room."

Okay…if you're thinking that, and you've never had a problem with behavior during Daily 5, then you deserve a gold medal!

No matter what we try, our little friends sometimes just can't get along with their group mates, or they can't find that perfect "Level 2" partner work voice. Or, they have an issue with truly staying on task, no matter how much time YOU put into ensuring each activity's meaningful and engaging nature.

So…I thought I'd pipe in this week's linky to share a couple of ideas that I have found super useful during Daily 5.


The first one: CLASS DOJO!
A lot of teachers use this as a whole class management tool. This year, I utilized it during Daily 5. Rather than each individual student having his or her own characters, each Daily 5 group had its own. In our classroom, we have numbers as Daily 5 groups - groups 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 (don't panic - this year, I plan to spice things up a bit).

Anyway, during Daily 5, the above image was projected on our screen. While I worked with a small group at the back table, I had my trusty wireless mouse next to me. If a group was on task or off task, I was able to click a group, indicate positive or negative behaviors, and the computer took care of alerting the class for me. There's a nifty little sound for positive and negative, and the kids quickly learn which is which. Based on our T-charts that we make during our introduction of Daily 5, I preload the behaviors, and the groups can see specifics of what made them gain or lose points. The best part of this is — I don't have to break away from my small group AT ALL. So many times, teachers are pulled away from their small group because they're yelling across the room or snapping their fingers to redirect students. And, that's not fair to your friends at the back table OR the other students in the room.

Once a group reaches five points, they get to "kick of their shoes" during Daily 5 the next day! Talk about a simple incentive! And, powerful, too. We make a big show of it, of course - the group gets to stand at the front of the room and literally KICK off their shoes! Then, we reset that group's points, and they restart their journey to shoeless Daily 5 glory.

My first graders this year LOVED this. They were very quick to remind me to pull up the "monsters." I'm positive that they started to think of these little furry guys as part of the family! 

The second idea I've used is pretty similar, but isn't dependent upon technology. 

It's super simple: 

On the main whiteboard in my room, I list each group's name (or number, if you're lame like I was this past year). Then, at the end of Daily 5 for the day (we have three rounds each day in my classroom), I choose my STAR groups. Then, I place a…you guessed it…STAR next to that group's name. Multiple groups may earn a star, or no groups may earn one! When a group earns three stars, that group gets to KICK off their shoes! Yay! 

As a side note: I'm all about self-reflection, and my students have the opportunity to do this at the end of each round, as we wait for all of the groups to clean up. Students sit on their desks (yes, this is super exciting for them) and give a quick "self-check." This is three fingers, two fingers or one finger, depending on how they feel that they did during that round of Daily 5. If we have time, I ask for volunteers to share a "proud moment" (something that they feel they did great during that round), a "wish for next time" (a goal for the next round) or a "star for someone else" (if they noticed a classmate making excellent choices). This is just a great way to include a little self-assessment and community building during our Daily 5 rounds! 

So, those are my quick and easy ideas for Daily 5 behavior management. What do you do for Daily 5 behavior? Or, are you one of those who deserve a gold medal?