“How Full is Your Bucket?” Lesson Plan
Name:
Date:
Subject:
Length:
Grade Level:
Cindy Rydalch
September 2012
Social Studies
1 class period, 40 minutes
1st grade
Social Studies Core Curriculum Objectives:
• Standard 2 (Citizenship), Objective 1: Describe and demonstrate appropriate social skills necessary
for working in a group.
a. Describe behaviors that contribute to cooperation within groups at school.
g. Predict possible consequences for a variety of actions.
ELA Common Core Objectives:
• Standard 1 – Key Ideas and Details
a. Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
• Standard 2 – Craft and Structure
d. Identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings.
Preparation:
How Full is Your Bucket? (Tom Rath and Mary Reckmeyer)
Bucket and Shovel
Bag of Sand
Time
3-5 minutes
Lesson
I.
Introduction
Build anticipation by quietly playing with a bucket and
shovel, ask the students:
• If you could answer, how I could fill up my bucket,
then silently raise your hand:
• If you could answer, what treasures could I fill up my
bucket with, then silently raise your hand:
30 minutes
II.
Content/Activity
• Today, we are going to read a book about a boy
named Felix who is going to learn how to fill up his
bucket.
Management
• Students are gathered on a rug
and the volume is a “red light.”
Ask a student to remind
everyone what a “red light”
means. It means that only the
teacher is talking and everyone
is listening.
• Ensure that shoulders, eyes,
and knees are facing me.
• Spotlight students doing the
right thing.
• Touch arm to remind students
to raise hand before beginning.
• Ensure that it is quiet and that
students are at a “red light”
with appropriate body
language.
We are going to take a picture walk through the
•
book, here is the main character, Felix.
o Does this book look like a fiction or nonfiction book?
o How do you know?
• Based on our picture walk, what are you wondering
or predicting might happen?
o I want to know why there are buckets on top
of everybody’s head. Give me a thumbs up
if you were wondering about that too. Let’s
find out.
• Read the story through once to ensure that students
understand the plot.
o Raise your hand, if you remember a way
that Felix empties his bucket?
o Raise your hand, if you remember a way
that Felix fills his bucket?
• We are going to read the story again, this time I am
going to fill Felix’s bucket when he chooses good
actions, and we are going to empty the bucket when
he chooses not so good actions.
o
o If I read something that shows Felix can fill
his bucket, you are going to show me a
thumbs up.
o If I read something that shows Felix has to
empty his bucket, you are going to show me
a thumbs down.
o Let’s practice, on the first page Felix’s little
sister wants to play with him, and he says
that she is too little. Are you going to show
me a thumbs up or a thumbs down?
o Ask someone why are you giving me a
thumbs down….That’s right Felix is not
making a good choice and he has to empty
some of his bucket.
o
o Okay, are your thumbs ready? I will now
they are ready when your hands are sitting
quietly in your laps. Let’s begin.
o
III.
Closure
•
a. Raise your hand if you have an idea of what
Felix can do to make sure his bucket keeps
nice and full?
b. How did Felix empty his bucket? How did
Felix fill up his bucket?
c. How do you feel when you have a full
bucket?
•
5 minutes
Use reinforcers like, “I like the
way ________ raised his hand
to answer.”
Have everyone practice silently
giving a thumbs up and thumbs
down before continuing.
Make sure hands are held
quietly in lap while waiting for
thumbs up or down.
Do not begin until it is quiet.
Focus on the positive and not
the negative.
IV.
d. Now I want to fill up this whole bucket with
o
ideas that will help fill each other’s buckets.
In order to fill it up, you will need to raise
your hand and give me an idea of how to fill
a classmate’s bucket. I will do the first, I can
fill someone’s bucket by sitting by them at
lunch. Okay, I can’t wait to see if we can fill
this whole bucket with great ideas to make
our classroom a great place. Make sure your
hands are raised high, so I can call on
everyone.
Evaluation
a. I will know students have learned through
the closure activity. This will show me if
students can really apply Felix’s situation to
our own classroom.
Remind students to be good
listeners when they are waiting
to be called on.
Adaptations: I will make sure that my linguistically challenged and special needs students sit close to
me. I will also make sure to bridge new vocabulary words with words they already know. Signals such
as the thumbs up/down will help all students to participate and feel safe to do so. It will also ensure
that all students are on-task and engaged.
Integration:
Students could use writing to fill up a bucket with wonderful positive actions that they
can do at home to fill others’ buckets. We could also make a class bucket that would be displayed with
positive ideas to make our classroom a safe and nice place to be. It would be simple to use a few math
terms such as add and subtract when we are talking about filling or emptying the idea bucket. Just
another way to reinforce new vocabulary, and use this vocabulary in a real-world setting.