Consul Friendship

Wow! We needed extra time to do this theme justice.  We started with +Michelle Salt 's video and paired up with someone in our classroom that we were less familiar with.  The challenge was to find two ways that they were the same and two ways that they were different.   The kids were hesitant at first, thinking it would be hard to find ways that they were the same but surprised themselves through their discussions.  Some pairs found out they had the same colour of dog for a pet, liked planting flowers, or going swimming in the summer.  Their ideas were varied and they gained an appreciation for each other - these pairs likely wouldn't have had this contact without this activity.  Here they are working together . . .

Our next activity was centred around the book "How Full Is Your Bucket?"  I read the book to the kids and then we sorted some ideas that would be bucket fillers or bucket dippers.  They grasped the concept easily.  Kids then decorated their own buckets and drew the names of three classmates.  They had to think of a way to fill their classmates' buckets.  This proved to be a challenge for those who drew names of less familiar classmates, but they did it.  Lots of thought went into 'what is this person good at' or 'what have I seen this person do that was bucket filling'.  These comments were then added to each child's bucket - each child gets their bucket filled by three classmates.  Our display is in the hall.  Here's some pictures!

This activity I downloaded for free from scholastic.com.