Exploring and Bucketfilling

In Reader's Workshop students chose a basket of books from our classroom library to explore with a partner.  

They answered questions about what they noticed about the particular books that were in the basket.

Afterwards they chose a book they would most likely read from the basket and wrote why they picked that book.  Each child wrote their name on a bright orange bookmark to show what book they chose and put it back in the library.  I'm able to clearly see what book sparked their interest and hopefully they  discovered a book they would not have thought to read before this activity.  Some students are hoping to be able to grab the book they marked as their next choice reading book!

Students were introduced to what it means to be a bucketfiller.  After I read this book:

The idea of the book is that we all carry an invisible bucket that contains our feelings. When our bucket is full, we feel great. When our bucket is empty, we feel sad. A bucket filler is someone who says or does nice things for other people. By doing this, they are filling other people's buckets and filling their own bucket at the same time.

A bucket dipper says or does things to cause other people to feel bad. A bucket dipper empties their bucket when they say and do mean things.

In our classroom, each student has a bucket on our Bucket Filler bulletin board. Everyone is encouraged to fill the buckets by writing kind words and compliments to each other. Each Friday, we empty the buckets and read the nice things our friends left for us when they filled our buckets.