Are You a Bucket Filler?

Happy fantastic Friday, everyone! The rainy day may have kept us indoors, but surely filled our day with lots of fun😊

C looked very happy as we sang her a birthday song in different languages. She is turning 5 years old tomorrow. She said, “I am going to Disneyland with my grandpa and grandma, mommy, daddy, S, and Ar and Ar’s mommy and daddy. Everyone of us will go to the same place”.  We asked if we could ask her two questions, which she readily said, “Okay!”.

            D: C, why you go to Disneyland?

            C: Because mommy told me last time I’m scared at Disneyland. Now, I’m not scared anymore.

            H: I love you, C!
           Sh: Tomorrow after graduation, I will go to Israel.

Happy birthday, C! Have a lovely time at Disneyland with our family and friends tomorrow!

QUESTION OF THE DAY (Can you make others happy?)

We opened our circle time with sharing what we enjoy at home, after we come back from school.

            K: My babysitter is play in house.

            D: When I finish school, I go to Ju Jitsu and Crossfit. Crossfit is where we do stretching.

            R: When mommy come, sometimes I eat ice cream. When daddy comes, sometimes I go Lawson or go home and play blocks.

            Sh: My dad made me very happy today! He give me something that for a long time I didn’t have. It’s chocolate yogurt.

It is interesting how other people can make us feel happy. The good thing is, we can also make others happy. We took turns sharing our stories of making others feel good and happy.

            D: One time, I make H happy. I do something silly and she laugh.

            C: I have a dog and he makes me happy. My friend has a dog. I’m happy that I go to her house.

            Hi: Someone can give a dog food, and then the dog can be happy.

            Re: If you give a ball to a dog, they can be happy.

            Iz: We give dog food, then dog gonna chase us.

            Sh: Last time I go to my friend’s house and there was a dog and it kiss me and make me scared and happy.

We had to pause for a moment to think deeply about the ways we can make others happy. There might be times when we make others feel sad, too. We feel that identifying these emotions can help us in managing good and challenging situations.  Here were some of the things we think can make us happy and sad:

            Sh: When my daddy came back from the shop and say hello in Hebrew, and I run to hug him.

            R: I play with my mommy. Daddy give me chocolate.

(What can make us sad?)

            D: Hit someone strong and then get sad.

            Re: Punch someone.

            Ke: We kick.

            Hi; Scream

            B: If you do loud in their ears.

            R: (For example) If B and Hi whisper, and Ke don’t know.

            I: We can just use our voice (to solve problems).

We heard some of our friends shared how they felt sad because of what other friends did to them. We listened intently to what was being shared, and then offered an idea. It seemed like when we do not understand what was being shared, sometimes it makes us say or do something that isn’t nice. Re suggested, “You can talk like, “what you’re saying” or you can talk another day”.

Vieda told us that perhaps one book can help us with reflecting on how we can make others happy, or sad. We read the book called, Have You Filled a Bucket Today? By Carol McCloud. The book talks about everyone’s invisible bucket that can be either full or empty. The amazing thing about is, we can fill up other’s buckets and, in the process, fill ours too! And what about empty buckets? We learned that those who are sad and lonely have empty buckets. Unfortunately, we can also take part in making other’s buckets empty.

            Ri: If it’s empty, you can give to us!
            I: We say to our friend, “You can do it!”.

            R: Everyone is cute (so we don’t say, you’re not cute)

            Sh: I told An, my mom said I’m the cutest!

How can we fill the bucket?

            Da: We say I like you!

            C: Say I love you.

            Be: We say, let’s play together.

            Ke: Be kind.

            I: I love your skirt, Hi.

            Sh: Di, I like you.

            R: I love your hair.

            Re: I love your dress.

We had an amazing learning opportunity about how powerful our words are. Our words can fill others’ buckets and make them and ourselves happy😊

For our morning activity, we decorated our buckets with masking tape, colorful buttons, and paper tiles. Vieda asked us to hold our own buckets and think of words or actions that we thought could fill our friend’s buckets. We used balls made of crumpled paper ads to represent the little kind words and acts that we do towards our friends.  In no time at all, everyone’s buckets were either full or half-full and everyone had a big smile on his/her face.

We will try our best to remember to be bucket-fillers every day because in doing so, our buckets become full too!

Have a lovely weekend!

Love,

Flowers XOXO