Negative world – Movies, Video Games,
Television Shows, etc.
 Bullying
 Comprehension
 Brings out the positive in every child
 Positive Atmosphere
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Early Childhood Character Development
Program -1960 by Dr. Donald O. Clifton
 Kindness and Respect – Taught,
Practiced, & Valued
 Encourage the positives and try to
relinquish the negatives
 Imaginary “buckets” – represent mental
and emotional self

Actions or words
 Saying or doing something kind
 A smile
 Helping without being asked
 Showing respect to others
 Anything positive

Making someone feel negative about
themselves
 Taking joy and happiness from someone
else to try to fill your bucket
 Actually your dipping from your bucket,
too.

Making fun of someone
 Doing unkind things
 Refusing to help
 Disrespectful
 Showing disrespect
 Bullying
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How it helps:
With Discipline
Helps children
understand each
other’s feelings
Makes them aware of
their actions
Makes a positive
environment
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Materials:
Books for children to
read about bucket
filling
Board with ways to be
bucket fillers
Use Plastic cups to
represent child’s
bucket and let
children fill them with
pom-poms or notes
when they do
something positive
As a teacher, I noticed that a girl in my
class, Rachel, does not play with children
on the playground, nobody ever asks her to
play. One day I had duty and noticed
another girl in my class, Sarah, inviting
Rachel to play with her. After recess I let
Sarah know that she was being a bucket
filler and made Rachel feel special and
loved. I let Sarah put pom-poms in Rachel’s
plastic cup when we get back into the
room to represent bucket filling.
At school one day I noticed that a couple
of children were picking on Adam
because he got glasses. I explain to the
class that they are dipping from Adam’s
bucket. I tell them we need to be bucket
fillers and not bucket dippers. We talk
about ways we can be bucket fillers.

Send out a newsletter

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Have a bucket filling
conference at school

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Keep up with the
bucket filling every
week

Make the newsletter
informational about
bucket filling
(Websites)
Make the conference
fun, yet informational
Send a letter home at
the end of the week
telling parents what
they did to fill buckets
Implement it into your own lives. You will
notice a big difference on what you say!
 Think before you speak!
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