A10
Education
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Students ‘fill their buckets’ with positivity during assembly
Presentation
teaches ways to
approach life
By Angel Carpenter
Blue Mountain Eagle
Humbolt and Seneca ele-
mentary students learned the
benefits of a positive mindset,
helpful actions, as well as re-
silience through an interactive
program.
Motivational speaker Kel-
ly Nickel of Redding, Califor-
nia, used props, singing and
plenty of humor as he shared
ideas with students from
grades kindergarten through
sixth on Thursday at the Hum-
bolt gym. He also visited Prai-
rie City School.
Nickel said some days are
bad — maybe there was no
bacon left at breakfast time, or
you were assigned to clean the
bathroom or someone pushed
you down.
He showed two reactions
to being pushed, as sixth-
grade volunteer Sheldon Lenz
gave Nickel a slight tap. One
response was negative and
vengeful, while the other was
positive, laughing and shrug-
ging off the offense.
Nickel used a simple buck-
et as a binary choice tool,
symbolically showing how a
person can add to a bucket, by
being a positive “bucket-fill-
er,” or take away from the
bucket, as a negative “buck-
et-dipper.”
Nickel said having a pos-
itive response to a negative
situation activates a “lid of
resilience.”
He added, “For big things,
you need an adult or an am-
bulance.”
Sixth-graders Hailey Me-
cham and Olivia Delgado
demonstrated a few ways to
say hello to someone, with
“high tens” as they passed
each other.
“Give everyone you meet
a feeling of being special and
feeling welcome,” Nickel
said.
Acts of kindness, helpful-
Humbolt sixth-grader
Sheldon Lenz smiles at
Kelly Nickel who falls over-
dramatically after a slight
push from the sixth-grader.
Nickel gave a motivational,
interactive presentation on
Thursday at the school.
Eagle photos/Angel Carpenter
Motivational speaker Kelly Nickel shows how he’d like his volunteers to dance along to the song he’s introducing to
Humbolt Elementary students at Thursday’s assembly. From left, sixth-grader Sivanna Hodge, sixth-grader Quinlan
Taylor, fourth-grader Dominic Turner and third-grader Jassmin Harig.
Motivational speaker
Kelly Nickel, in a sing-
song voice, encourages
the Humbolt Elementary
students in Thursday’s
assembly to thank their
Principal Kim Smith,
standing at his right.
Humbolt Elementary students and staff participate in
an interactive assembly on Thursday about ‘filling their
buckets’ by having a positive mindset.
ness and compliments help
fill a person’s bucket, he said,
adding that as one fills anoth-
er’s bucket, their own bucket
is also filled. Likewise, dip-
ping from another’s bucket
with negative behaviors, like
bullying, takes away from
both buckets.
Nickel said he visits 70
schools a year with the buck-
et-filler message, which he
said supports character ed-
ucation and social and emo-
Humbolt sixth-graders Hailey Mecham, right, and Olivia
Delgado demonstrate how to ‘fill their bucket’ by giving
each other a ‘high 10’ with motivational speaker Kelly
Nickel, left, offering instruction.
tional learning.
“It helps kids remember
to be more positive, kind
and more helpful by doing
little things that make a big
difference,” he said. “Once
we see the benefits, we’ll
want to do it more.”
Humbolt Principal Kim
Smith said the overall re-
sponse from both students and
staff has been positive.
“I noticed teachers in-
corporating reading Carol
McCloud’s books on being
a bucket-filler with their stu-
dents as well,” she said.
The Parent-Teacher Asso-
ciation paid for the assembly,
and travel expenses for Nickel
were shared with Prairie City
School’s PTA.
Books on the bucket-fill-
ing concept include: “Have
You Filled a Bucket Today”
by Carol McCloud, “How
Full is your Bucket for Kids”
by Tom Rath and Mary Reck-
meyer, and, for adults, “How
Full is your Bucket” by Tom
Rath and Donald O. Clifton,
Ph.D.
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