Have You Filled a Bucket Today? teaches a very important lesson to children ages 4 and up. It is an excellent book to read during mealtime or any time! This book discusses how everyone carries an invisible bucket. Buckets are filled with good thoughts and feelings. When you make someone feel good, you fill their bucket and your bucket. People who fill other people’s buckets are bucket fillers. When you make someone else feel bad, you are dipping into their bucket as well as your own. Bullies are bucket dippers. This book also takes you through different ways of filling other people’s buckets (such as smiling at someone, inviting the new kid over for a playdate, etc). With this book, there are many life lessons that I think not only children but adults can benefit from. We need to respect others and fill other peoples buckets on a regular basis. It teaches children that we want to be treated in the same way we need to treat others.
Carryover Activity: This activity is great for a group of children. Each child gets a bucket and two hearts. The children should sit around in a circle. After reading the book, each child turns to the person next to them and tells them a good thought and gives them a heart. Since they gave the person a good thought next to them, they get a heart for their bucket. This continues until all children have two hearts in their bucket. This activity makes everyone feel good and as a result, hopefully everyone wants to be a bucket filler! Have fun decorating the bucket and filling it with good thoughts 🙂