Dear Families – Welcome to a wonderful start to Year 1!
We have enjoyed these first few weeks of school, welcoming the children into their new class and exploring all of the fun things school has to offer. We have focused on establishing our class rules and getting to know our new subject teachers for art, gym, music and cooking. We have been reviewing the numbers 1-20, our Five Senses and exploring story writing with our first Talk for Writing in the series. We are emphasizing the importance of kindness and have seen some wonderful examples of this in playing, taking turns, and working collaboratively together.
Throughout the course of the school year students will be practicing being bucket fillers! The concept of being a bucket filer comes from Carol McCloud’s Book, “Have You Filled A Bucket Today?” and stems around the idea that everyone carries around an invisible bucket that throughout the day is being filled by the kind things that you do for others or that others do for you. A bucket filler is someone who is showing positive character traits (kind, considerate, caring, respectful) and is being a responsible citizen. When our buckets are full, we feel happy and when our buckets are empty, we feel sad.
The children have been learning about different qualities that bucket fillers and bucket dippers exhibit. We will continuously be reading “Have You Filled A Bucket Today?” so students are able to really grasp the concept of bucket filling. We will be practicing being a bucket filler in the classroom, and encourage students to be bucket fillers at home too.
It is very important that this concept is carried over into student’s home lives. You can help your child at being a bucket filler by discussing the concepts at home. You can praise your child at home when they do something that fills your bucket or someone else’s bucket.
With your help, I hope that we can create a positive, happy, bucket filling classroom!
