Bravo!

The past couple of years, I have been dying to use Bucket Fillers in my classroom...I just haven't been able to find a practical way to make it work with three different classes of kiddos who move around all day! 

Until the other day at a district training when I saw one of my old high school teachers and was reminded of something she did in her classroom.  She called it "Bravos".  She kept a bucket and some slips of paper in the back of the room and anytime we saw someone do something awesome, we could write them a Bravo.  This could be done anonymously or we could sign our name.  Some were serious, some were funny, but they were all full of warm fuzzies.  Each Friday before the bell rang, she would spend about five minutes reading all the Bravos for the week.  Even in high school I knew I was going to be a teacher, and I LOVED the idea.  I don't know how it ever escaped me!  (I should have written it down...)

Soooo....I spent some time today making my own Bravos buckets for each of my classes!  I made a little sign and printed it on colored cardstock that corresponds with that grade's color (we have a different color for each grade for materials management purposes).  Here's the sign:

I also made little slips of paper for my students to write their Bravos on. 

I hope the kids get into it!  I think I'm going to suggest it to our principal to use during staff meetings too!  I notice so many other teachers doing neat things that I then incorporate into my classroom, but sometimes I forget to give them proper credit or thanks!