What’s in your bucket?????
Well if you are a part of the Gables School community—that is a very easy
question to answer. Your bucket is filled with happy thoughts, good deeds, kindness and
polite words!!! Gables School has taken on a new school wide campaign. Every child,
teacher, staff member, parent and family member has been called to be a Bucket Filler.
Bucket Filling is easy!! Everyone in the world carries an invisible bucket. The
bucket is filled with the good thoughts, kind deeds and polite words that the person
experiences or shares with others. When a bucket is full, the person is happy. We are
responsible for filling our own buckets by acting responsibly, helping others, and doing
things to make our world and the world around us a better place.
Bucket Dipping occurs when an individual makes poor choices, is unkind, rude or
says mean things. These negative situations dip into the buckets of all involved including
the person who committed the unkind act. People who feel badly about themselves or
who are often angry have empty buckets. A person cannot dip into the full bucket of
another person and fill their own bucket with those feelings. The person must make
positive changes in their own actions and then they will fill their own buckets and the
buckets of those around them.
Our younger students have created pictures of their Bucket Filling deeds that
make our school better. The older students brainstormed lists of Bucket Filling and
bucket dipping activities that occur in our school community. They used this information
to create a poster that hangs in their classrooms as a daily reminder of what Bucket Fillers
do and don’t do.
Each week we honor the students that were caught filling the buckets of other
Gables School community members. Any staff member at Gables can nominate a Bucket
Filler. Throughout the day and throughout the school, students are verbally praised for
Bucket Filling actions and re-directed when bucket dipping occurs. The fillers are
announced each Friday afternoon prior to dismissal. They receive a certificate and prize.
The PTO’s Student of the month program also has incorporated the Bucket Filling theme.
Teachers are asked to give the name of the student who has been the most consistent
Bucket filler during the month. A Bucket Filler can be the most improved, most hard
working, most kind or most friendly student.
Our Make a Difference Day was done in conjunction with our Bucket Filling
theme. Students were asked to draw posters and write essays about kind things that they
would do to make our community a better place. We ran a recycling contest. Mrs.
Perry’s kindergarten class collected over 8 pounds of plastic bottle caps. This Bucket
Filling action helped to keep these dangerous pieces of plastic from ending up in the
waterways and making the aquatic animals sick.
During the holidays, we remember that Kindness is a gift we all can give. Many
students will be making a kindness project to send home to their families. Our Bucket
Filling community project will involve a collection for our soldiers. Don’t forget our
SOUPER BOWL. This is another Bucket Filling project to gather cans of soup for a
local food pantry.
We have a lot going on here at the Gables. Remember this one important fact—
GABLES IS A NO DIPPING ZONE!!!!!! So I ask once again—What’s in your
Bucket??????
Mrs. Kasun, School Counselor