Children today have very little reason to write formal thank you letters, or even informal thank you notes. Phone calls, texts, emails and e-cards have become commonplace methods of communication for today's kids. While this may be fine for many situations, thanking a teacher at the end of the year still calls for a handwritten thank you letter. Teachers may want to save these letters as small keepsakes, and letters composed by students also allow teachers to enjoy the writing and composition skills which they have taught that year. Some students prefer to give teachers a small end of year gift, but an accompanying thank you letter should not be forgotten.
Students often shy away from writing thank you letters because they do not know what such letters should include. As with any thank you letter, the sender and recipient's names and addresses as well as the date of correspondence should be included, though this information does not need to be as formal as with other types of letters. A salutation, body, closing and signature should make up the bulk of the thank you letter. The body of this thank you letter does not need to be long if students are not able to write many paragraphs, but it should include information about why the student is actually thankful to the teacher. What was (s)he taught this year that (s)he appreciates? What activities were his or her favourites? Was there a memorable event or outing that (s)he enjoyed? How does (s)he feel now that the school year is over? The answers to these questions can easily make up the bulk of an end of year thank you letter from a student to a teacher.
Depending on the age of a student, an end of year thank you letter may need to be written by an adult. As long as the adult faithfully transcribes what the student says this should be no problem. However, adults should take care to allow children's true voices to come through in end of year thank you letters to their teachers. Even if the vocabulary or content is not quite what adults would like, it is more important for the thank you letter to be authentic than it is for an adult to edit it for a teacher. At the end of the thank you letters, students should print or sign their name whether they wrote the rest of the letter or not. Adding decorative patterns, borders or doodles is also fine and may help children feel that they have truly personalised their end of year thank you letters to their teachers.
Thank you for making Year One such a fun year for me. I did not know that I liked maths, but I really liked it when we looked at recipes to learn our fractions. I also liked when we got to make up rhymes for our silly poems and perform them for the class. I will never forget Sparkle the class turtle or how we had to get Mrs. Johnson to look after him when we took our trip to the Science Museum. Year One was a very good year, and because of you I can not wait to start Year Two.
Why not take a look at our Thank You letter from Thank You Letter from Student to Private Tutor or End of Year Thank You Letter from Parent to Teacher.
Hello! I am from the United States, and I truly love the preceding. I thank you for helping me with writing my end of my 6th grade year thank you letter. ( or called Year Six in England). Thank you very much, once again!