Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Disney-Hyperion as part of my Mo Willems ambassadorship with Disney-Hyperion.
Mason starting school was rough, not for him but for me, I still struggle with him not being home most days. I miss him! I miss that he doesn’t get to come on fun adventures with us. I miss not knowing about every part of his day. I was anxious to know what he had done all day when he came home but more often than not he wasn’t interested in telling me right away, instead he needed time to unwind. It wasn’t long before I decided to start asking him some questions at night before we went to bed so I could learn a little more about his day.
What was your favorite part of the day?
What was your least favorite part of the day?
What is something you’re looking forward to tomorrow?
What are you grateful for?
At first he didn’t understand, what does grateful mean? So I explained it to him in words that he could easily understand. It means thank you. And what’s the point of having gratitude for those around you if you don’t share it by saying THANK YOU! As with any other lesson I’m trying to teach the kiddos I love reading stories to them that relate to the overall message I’m trying to send to them. The Thank You book by Mo Wilems was that book this time around. The Thank You book is the last book in the Elephant and Piggie series.
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.
We love getting new books, we love Mo Willems, we love Elephant and Piggies and we LOVE The Thank You Book.
It was so fun for us to read through the book and see all the different people that Piggie was thanking. It was a great reminder to the kids that we need to be thankful for everyone in our lives including the ice cream man! We were able to drive that point home even more with the Thank-O-Rama spinner that we got along with our book.
We didn’t just get a Thank-O-Rama spinner! We also got some awesome speech bubbles where we could express who we were thankful for. When I asked Mason who he was thankful he quickly said “everyone”. Do you have someone you want to thank right away? Print out a grey or pink “I Will Thank” speech bubble like the one below, fill in your special someone and share on social media with the hashtag #ThankORama!
Mason has enjoyed the spinner and the “I Will Thank” bubble so much that he’s been enjoying spinning it and thinking of people in our lives who he can thank. Since he was so enthusiastic about the spinner I created a simple printable to help get your child engaged with all the people they can thank. Our goal is to find someone new to thank every single day for the next month but you can also choose to do it in just a couple of settings, I know for us we could fill up the entire page with just our family.
We’re keeping our list on the fridge so we can easily remember to add to it and so that we can look at it and remember how lucky we are that we have so many people in our lives that we can thank from the UPS man who delivers us fun packages to our favorite farmer at the Farmer’s Market who we buy sweet potatoes from.
Looking for more fun activities to go along with The Thank You Book? Visit Thankorama.com.
About Mo Willems
Mo Willems (www.pigeonpresents.com), a number one New York Times best-selling author and illustrator, has been awarded a Caldecott Honor on three occasions, for Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale, and Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity. The celebrated Elephant & Piggie early-reader series has been awarded the Theodor Seuss Geisel Medal on two occasions (for There Is a Bird on Your Head! and Are You Ready to Play Outside?) as well as garnering five Geisel Honors (for We Are in a Book!, I Broke My Trunk!, Let’s Go for a Drive!, A Big Guy Took My Ball! and Waiting Is Not Easy!).
We were so thankful to be a Mo Willems Ambassador and for the fun goodies that comes along with it! We were lucky enough to get an awesome kit filled with The Thank You Book goodies and we want you to get in on some of those goodies too. Enter below for the chance to win a copy of The Thank You Book, Elephant & Piggie event kit & standee and 2 Elephant & Piggie t-shirts.
I want to help a family who never met me, but did something that helped my family a lot!
I would thank all 23 of my kindergarten students for the best year ever!
I want to thank my mom for her patience and help with my sassy 3 yo!
I want to thank my husband for working hard so I can stay home with our kids.
I want to thank Jesus for my wonderfun family.
My husband, always my husband.
As a school teacher, I would love to thank my team for a great school year.