FREE Bucket Filler Behavior Management Strategy for in Person or Distance Learning

Here is a question that many teachers find themselves asking their students daily… Are you being a bucket filler? If you are one of these teachers, then you are going to LOVE this behavior management strategy freebie! Each student is given a paper bucket and can work towards filling their bucket everyday. This free resource includes:

WE ARE BUCKET FILLERS Colorful Sign
Digital Big Colorful Buckets
Digital Small Colorful Buckets
WE ARE BUCKET FILLERS Black and white Sign
Printable Big Buckets in Black and White
Printable Small Buckets in Black and White

This post will take you through everything you will need to know about this FREEBIE and the benefits of being a bucket filler classroom. So if you’re ready, let’s get started!

My Favorite Book for the First Week of School… Have You Filled a Bucket Today?

If you are a preschool or early elementary school teacher, then you have probably heard of the book, “Have You Filled a Bucket Today?” It is an awesome book that I make sure to read to my students within the first week of school because it talks about being kind and making good choices. After reading the book you can create an anchor chart of bucket filling and bucket dipping behaviors.

Bucket Filling Behavior

Listening to the teacher
Telling the truth
Following the rules
Being kind to others

Bucket Dipping Behavior

Hurting people
Not following directions
Using mean words
Cutting in line

Bucket filling and dipping seems to be an easy concept for most preschool, kindergarten and first grade students to understand. Throughout the year you can reread this book and review the anchor chart when your class needs a reminder.

How to use Bucket Fillers as a Fun Classroom and Behavior Management System

After reading the book and creating an anchor chart, you can introduce a behavior management system with buckets with your students. Simply put, each student gets their own bucket. They can earn a pom-pom (printable version) or dot (digital version) when they are being bucket fillers. If they are bucket dipping you can choose to take a pom poms or dots away.

There are two ways to fill these buckets…

1. Pom poms- With the hook side of velcro you can stick pom poms on the buckets and reuse them all year long. You can choose to reset the amount of pom poms students have in their bucket daily or once a week.

2. Stickers- Once the bucket is full students can get a new blank bucket to color in. This method takes more paper and A LOT of stickers, but my students seem to LOVE to take home their buckets to show their families.

Materials for the Printable Version

If you are using this resource in your classroom, then you can print out the buckets (directions are below) on white paper and have students color in their own buckets or you can print out the buckets on color paper.

Here is a list of materials that you may choose to use:

Paper of your choice (white or color printer paper, white or color cardstock, etc.)
Scissors and Tape
Pom poms, dot stickers, or fun stickers for bucket filling behavior
Laminating sheets (optional to make buckets more durable)
Hook side of velcro (only if you are using pom poms to stick on the buckets)

Going Digital for Distance Learning

If you are going digital I have included 2 templates to choose from. The first template has 6 buckets per page, the second template has 12 per page. Choose the template that makes sense for the number of students in your classroom.

Make sure to duplicate the slide if you need more buckets (directions are in step 3 of the next section, “Easy Google Slides Instructions for these FREE Digital and Printable Buckets.” Once you have the correct number of buckets you can add your students names in the text boxes labeled, “Name Here.”

Tip: When you reset your students’ buckets (daily or weekly) duplicate the original slide instead of moving all of the dots back to the bank.

Easy Google Slides Instructions for these FREE Digital and Printable Buckets

If you are new here then you may not know that I am OBSESSED with Google Slides. You will find that all of the resources on this blog are made with Google Slides for a number of reasons…

1. You can create and edit resources on your Google Drive that automatically saves your work. Unlike most editable resources, this one SAVES the changes you make. This means if you are using the digital version and choose to reset the buckets weekly, then any dots your students earn from Monday will still be there Tuesday and for the rest of the week… YAY!

2. You can access all of my resources in your Google Slides so you never have to worry about losing or misplacing them.

3. Wherever you are (at home, in school, the library etc.) and whatever device (laptop, PC, Chromebook, Ipad, smartphone, etc.) you can access Google Slides.

4. You can organize all of your files by subject or month and add my resources to whichever folder you see fit.

If you are already familiar with Google Slides, then you can scroll to the bottom of this post and click the rainbow button labeled, “Click Here for FREEBIE,” to access these FREE and EDITABLE Buckets. However, if you would like a quick step by step of how to use this resource, then keep reading!

Using Google Slides to Access this Free Digital and Printable Buckets

After downloading this product you can make a copy for yourself. This is super helpful because you can pick and choose which slides you want in your presentation. For example, you can split this resource into two separate copies… one Google Slide with all of the Digital resources and the other Google Slide with all of the printable resources.

1. Click the rainbow button labeled, “Click Here for FREEBIE.”

2. Once the Google Slide opens in another tab, click on File → Make a Copy → Entire Presentation. Then, click the yellow button, “OK.”

3. Delete any slides that you do not want in the presentation you just made. You can do this by clicking on the slide to highlight it, then then right mouse click and hit Delete.

P.S. – Don’t worry, you have the original downloaded in your Google Drive already so if you accidentally delete a page you can always go back in the original and copy and paste it into the slide.

4. If you are using the printable version, then go ahead and print the page you want (make sure to select landscape in your printing settings) If you would like to use this product digitally, then you are going to want to…

- Click the slide that corresponds with the bucket template you want to use.

- Click on Edit → Duplicate.

Now, the slide that you selected should be duplicated! Keep repeating this process until you have the number of buckets you need for your class.

5. Click on each textbox and type your student’s name where it says, “Name Here.”

The Moment You’ve Been Waiting for… Click Below for this FREEBIE!

Click below to access this FREE Digital and Printable Bucket Filler Behavior Management Strategy. Read above in the section, “Using Google Slides to Access this Free Digital and Printable Buckets” if you need help navigating this resource with Google Slides!