WSNN- More than 8 thousand students across the Suncoast participated in Embracing our Differences annual reading initiative.
The virtual reading initiative, “Bucket Fillers” was brought to 81 schools in both Sarasota and Manatee County.
“It’s all about the idea that we have individual buckets, they’re invisible and we fill each other’s buckets when we do nice things to one another and we fill our own buckets when we do that but when we do mean things to one another we can dip in to other people’s buckets and dip into our own so how can we fill our buckets on a daily basis,” said EOD, Education Director, Ben Jewell-Plocher.
Second graders in the Dual Language program at Daughtrey Elementary were able to experiencing bucket filling in both English and Spanish. Each grade level gets to reads a different book in a way to enhance their experience.
“If a student participated in the bucket filling experience when they were in pre-k and they got one book, now in first grade they’re getting another, second, third, so through the series they build upon those concepts of bucket filling and also learn other concepts about dipping into other buckets and times when you need to put a lid on your bucket to protect yourself,” said Jewell-Plocher.
2nd grade teacher, Alison Coppola, says bucket filling goes beyond teaching children the value of kindness
“Even though it’s focused on social emotional aspect, there’s vocabulary, there is a flow to a fluency of reading the book itself going from A to Z is really important for kids who are learning a second language,” said 2nd Grade teacher at Daughtrey Elementary, Alison Coppola.
While helping students embrace their differences.
“I think this is phenomenal for us, it fits well in our dual language program because it really matches with were all different but at the same time we kind find a way to communicate with each other and touch each other’s hearts,” said 2nd Grade teacher at Daughtrey Elementary, Jessica Perez Maqueda.
For more information on Embracing Our Differences, you can visit their website here.