Books Bloggers Love: August

I've teamed up with 11 other teachers to bring you a monthly link up with some of our favorite books.  This month, we're sharing our favorite books for September that we hope you can use in your classroom.  Each month on the 10th, we'll be sharing some of our fave books and giving away 4 copies as well.  How awesome is that?!?!

Last year was the first year I fell in love with filling buckets.  If you haven't heard, being a bucket filler is being someone who does and says kind things.  My kiddos ate this up and wanted to fill as many buckets as they could.

How Full is your Bucket For Kids is the perfect book to introduce at the beginning of the year as you're teaching your students about your class expectations.  

{I'm part of the Amazon affiliates program where I earn a small amount from our purchase}

I didn't know this book would be as big of a hit as it was when I introduced it last year.  I bring all of the kiddos to the carpet and we read this story.  Here's the scoop:

"Through the story of a little boy named Felix, this charming book explains to children how being kind not only helps others, it helps them, too. As he goes about his day, Felix interacts with different people — his sister Anna, his grandfather, other family and friends. Some people are happy, but others are grumpy or sad. Using the metaphor of a bucket and dipper, Felix’ grandfather explains why the happy people make Felix feel good, while the others leave him feeling bad — and how Felix himself is affecting others, whether he means to or not. This beautifully illustrated adaptation takes the original book’s powerful message — that the way we relate to others has a profound effect on every aspect of our lives — and tailors it to a child’s unique needs and level of understanding."

Throughout the book, we talk about ways Felix's bucket was filled and emptied.  At the end of the book, we come up with ways we can fill buckets in our class and at school.  I add their ideas to a  poster that is displayed for the first month of school.  Then, we made this cute craftivity to hang on our clothesline, just in time for Open House night.  Last year, I was running low on time so we just glued the heads onto he writing paper and added the bucket.

Here are a few FREE ideas you can use with this book:

Poster {free poster to display}

Class Book {print out these posters from One Fab Teacher and put into a class book}

Bucket Filler of the Week response {This is a great alternate to a Student of the Week}
Compassion Reading Passages {great to use after reading the book}
Free Compliments {a fun way for kiddos to pass out compliments}

My kiddos took it to another level (I put a quick stop to it) and began calling a few friends "bucket dippers" if they hurt their feelings.  Tears were involved and being called a bucket dipper was not a good thing, according to my 2nd graders.  My advice, prevent this if you can!


I love this book so much that I also purchased the related story!

Each month, we'll be giving away 4 of our favorite books so make sure to enter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Want to read about some other great Back to School books?  Click below!

An InLinkz Link-up