Lesson Plan
What's In Your Bucket?
Students will explore kindness and self-awareness through Carol McCloud’s Fill Your Bucket Today, identify bucket-filling behaviors, create personal bucket examples, and reflect on how positive actions impact emotions.
Building empathy and resilience is key for 5th graders. This lesson fosters prosocial behavior, self-awareness, and a supportive classroom climate by helping students recognize and practice acts of kindness.
Audience
Time
Approach
Materials
Prep
Prepare Materials
10 minutes
Step 1
Introduction
5 minutes
Step 2
Read-Aloud
10 minutes
Step 3
Guided Discussion
10 minutes
Step 4
Bucket-Filling Activity
15 minutes
Step 5
Reflection & Closure
5 minutes

Slide Deck
What’s In Your Bucket?
Lesson Objectives
Why Fill Buckets?
Bucket-Filling vs. Bucket-Dipping
Story Connection
Read-Aloud Prompts
Guided Discussion
Bucket-Filling Activity
Reflection Journal
Closing Challenge

Worksheet


Reading


Worksheet


Warm Up


Cool Down

