Patterning Strips

One of the PreK pages I use often (Prekinders or Prekpages.com) has a printable template for patterning strips that i love to keep handy.

I always have a few strips here for use during Bucket Filling themes so that children can practice patterning with all the bright colors and stars and hearts! For this center, I have a bucket to hold all of the manipulatives, however for this activity, I also included heart and star hole punches and colorful cardstock so that the kids can create and save their own manipulatives!

Bucket Color Sorting

I ordered the buckets I used for the Behavior Management from Oriental Trading by the dozen. I ordered an extra dozen just to use around the classroom….to hold manipulatives and to really carry through with the theme.

For this instance, I labelled each bucket with a color word, and with the visual print in that color. On the tray, I placed a ton of colorful and fuzzy manipulatives (pom pomps, feathers, small beads) and left them out for the children to sort.

Bucket Behavior Management

In your search for Bucket Filling ideas, I’m sure you’ll come across this…and I think you should do it. Because I love it and so do my kids! So do kids not even in my classroom!!!

Each child in my classroom has a bucket. I labelled them with their names, and as part of centers, allow them to decorate them and go crazy. I went out and purchased Command Velcro Strips, as well as a clear shoe organizer and packs of rainbow pom poms. I hang up the organizer on an open wall (I’ve been cutting my shoe organizer in half, and setting them up side by side using the velcro strips securing them to the wall. this ensures that they are at eye level)

Once the buckets are all decorated, each bucket gets a pocket in the shoe organizer, and I use some open pockets to hold all of the pom poms. During the week, I show them that when they do something nice, or give me a hug, or remember the rules, or help a friend, they filled my bucket…and I model putting a colored pom pom in my bucket and in theirs. After a day or so, the kids start doing this on their own, and run over to fill each others buckets. It is an amazing way to bring physicality, and a visual aspect to being respectful to one another and I encourage any teacher of any age to use it.

Circle Time Wall

For my pocket chart in my circle time area, I take phrases from one of the bucket filling books and print them out and laminate them. We use them as discussion pieces for group time, and for when we brainstorm ways to fill buckets. Later in the week, we also use them for recognition, matching to illustrations, and story recall!

Lite Brite!

I put this out in my math and manipulatives center whenever the theme is appropriate, or the mood strikes. I decided to put the lite brite and some blank papers for poking out during Bucket Filling because it is so full of color and life! We also work a lot on patterning (as you will see), so patterning and shape making is so fun with the lite brite!

The kids love poking and creating. I even showed a few how to make their names out of light!

Math Dice Game

Bucket Filling is a complex topic, so for most of my focus materials, I make them bucket related, rainbow related, or hearts and stars related (because as you’ll see…there’s always a rainbow of stars and hearts in a full bucket!). 

For this math activity, I simply used my word processor to find a nice clip art of a bucket, and used text boxes to fill in numbers from 1-6 multiple times. The children roll the dice, and use one of the provided manipulatives to cover up the number they rolled. Once they filled the bucket, they win!

This dice game helps 1:1 correspondence, numeral recognition, and counting with meaning!

Bucket Filling

If you’re a teacher, and you don’t already know about Bucket Filling…you need to get on the wagon. I love the bucket filling concept and so do the children. Every single year, it never fails to amuse and insight respect and care in my classroom.

The concept is that every person, young and old, have an invisible bucket that holds all the love and good feelings we get and feel. We rely on other people to fill our buckets, as well as fill our own buckets when we fill someone elses! We have to watch out for bucket dipping…which is when someone takes from a bucket to make themselves feel better. Bucket Dippers buckets are not full…so they try and fill it back up by taking love and good feelings, except it doesnt work!

The books (I use Have you Filled a Bucket Today, Bucket Filler, and Fill a Bucket)….well there are many to choose from. Fill a Bucket is a great book for the youngest age groups as it focusses on the positive filling and though the younger years (ie, you get your bucket when you get your name!) All the other books, and books of the same theme by other authors are all great. I haven’t found one I don’t like.

Links to bucket filling:

http://www.bucketfillers101.com/index.php

http://myfunteacher.com/bucketfillers.htm

Do your own search! there’s so much out there! :)