How full is your bucket?

Have you read this book?

Or this one?

While I have only read the second book I've heard that the first book is also great and my school has it in the library. I love "How full is your bucket?". It's a story that all students can relate to. Each student has had a day when they don't feel 100% happy. This could be because of something at home or something at school.

I read this book to my class last year and my current kiddos. I'm using this book as a way to check in with students on how their day is going. 

Last year I would check in with my kiddos as they were leaving for the day to see how their day had gone. They would tell me on a scale of 1 to 5 how their day had gone. If their day was anything other than a 5 I would check to see what had happened that made their day not perfect. After I checked in with them I would rate their day from my point of view. I feel as though this was a non competitive/ non judgemental way for kids to let me know how they are feeling and for me to let them know how their day was. Students were always really excited when they walked out the door with a 5 for the day.

This year because I'm only in the classroom in the morning I'm trying my best to check in with my kiddos before they go for lunch to see how their day has gone so far. On two separate days I had one of my kiddos tell me that her bucket was at a 1. This student has had a really rough time in the past few months at home. She felt that this was a non-threatening way to tell me that she was feeling sad. I liked that I could hear how she was feeling without me having to constantly interrupt her day with my questions of how things are going.

I really love this book and how I can hear about my kiddos days. I would recommend it to all early years teachers!