Friday, June 17, 2016

The Thank You Book

Title: The Thank You Book 
Author: Mo Willems 
Illustrator: Mo Willems 
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Publication Date: May 3rd, 2016 
Genre/Format: Fiction/Picture Book 
GoodReads Summary: Gerald is careful. Piggie is not.
Piggie cannot help smiling. Gerald can.
Gerald worries so that Piggie does not have to.

Gerald and Piggie are best friends.
What I Think: Just today my two sons got into an argument and I had to coach them in how to nicely apologize to someone. We talked about just saying sorry isn't enough. There's a sort of art to apologizing and making sure the person really and truly knows you mean it. And thanking someone can have it's own similar art-ness to it. Thanking someone and being specific and clear about how they helped you is powerful. In a world where kindness is more important than ever, spread thank yous seems like a great idea. Plus, it's free to be why not?

After reading The Thank You Book ask students to think about what makes a good thank you. Then invite students to write thank you notes to people who have helped them in some way. It could be a thank you to someone who helped them recently or a long time ago. It could be a thank you to someone who helped them in a big way or in a small way. If you have older students, you could put a twist on this activity and show a clip Jimmy Fallon's Thank You Notes segment...but I would advise you to watch all the way through and make sure it's appropriate to share with students!
Snatch of Text:  
'Thank you for your great ideas!'
Writing Prompt: Write a thank you note to someone who has helped you in some way - recently or a long time ago, big or small.

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