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.In The Thank You Book!, Piggie wants to thank EVERYONE. But Gerald is worried Piggie will forget someone . . . someone important.  
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 polite...so 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:  

"'Squirrels!'

'Piggie!'

'Thank you for your great ideas!'

'Aww!'

'Shucks!'"

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.