Different people in our lives can play big and small roles in helping us reach different goals. This can include people such as family members, friends, teachers, coaches, and others. Ask your Little if there is a person that they can think of that has helped them. One way we can show that we are thankful for this person is by expressing our gratitude.

As a mentor, model by sharing someone in your life who has helped you make progress towards a goal. Share what this person did with your Little.

Tell your Little that one way to reflect on the way that this person impacted your life is by writing them a gratitude note. Below are example prompts and fun gratitude notecards to get started. Feel free to get creative and create your own gratitude notecards. Challenge each other to create as many notecards as you can for the important people in your lives! 

Review your gratitude notecards with each other and discuss the role these important people have played in your lives. Share with your Little how one of the best ways to reach our goals is to build positive relationships with people who can help us. Sometimes people refer to this as a “web of support” or “social capital.” You might ask your Little if they have ever heard the words, “social capital” and ask them what it means to them. Share with your Little the following video to get them thinking:

Use the question prompts below to have a conversation about the video:

1. 1. 1. What did you think of this video? What did you learn?

      2. Did the video give you any ideas of different people who can help you?

      3. What are some ways different people might help you?

      4. How might you help others, such as your friends or family?

• Not all Littles may feel comfortable writing a gratitude notecard. The goal of this activity is to get your Little thinking about the importance of relationships. You might adapt this activity to meet your Little’s needs by just having a conversation about an important person in their life while engaging in another activity or you might add a more creative element to the gratitude letter by encouraging your Little to express themselves with drawings as opposed to text. 

• You might inspire your Little by coming to your session with a gratitude notecard that you wrote for them!