Writing a Thank-You Note

After the holidays, many students are left with a desire to thank friends and family for the gifts of the season, but no knowledge of how to write a thank-you note. Expressing thanks ties in nicely with January’s National Universal Letter Writing week and lets students learn how to format an effective thank-you.

Begin with a Template

Too often parents and teachers ask students to write a thank-you note only to be met with the phrase, “What do I say?”

Providing students with a template for writing a thank-you note takes the stress out of the task and helps students express their gratitude in an easy, predictable manner.

This week’s free lesson, “Writing a Thank-You Note,” is from Daily Living Skills’ Everyday Manners and provides a simple template that asks students to write a 3-sentence note that finishes these prompts:

Thank you for--: then describe the gift.
You--: describe the giver’s thoughtfulness.
I will--: describe how you will use it.

Real Life Lessons

Don’t miss the opportunity to use this template for a real-life lesson. At this time of year, nearly every student will have something they can say “thank-you” for. Use that fact to help them write an actual letter to somebody. Additionally, you can follow the lead of the next very organized teacher who shared the unit she created from the Daily Living Skills lessons.

Complete the Lesson

One teacher described the entire Life Skills lesson she created around this template.

She introduced this lesson and had her students use the template to create a thank-you note.
Students then participated in a field trip to purchase blank thank-you cards including working out the money-aspects to pay for their purchases.
Once back to class, students copied their sentences onto the card.
The teacher used the lesson “Addressing an Envelope” from Interviewing Skills to teach students how to address and stamp a letter.

They walked the note to the mailbox so that students could complete the process of mailing a letter. (Community Resources from Daily Living Skills will help students learn what resources, such as post offices, libraries, fire and police, etc., are available in their communities.)

For More Information

Like all books in the series, Everyday Manners and Community Resources are written on a 3rd/4th grade level with lots of bullet-point information and airy pages, yet still honor a teen’s maturity and sensibilities while meeting Indicator 13 goals and federal mandates for transition skills. To learn more, or to purchase these books, go here.