Thanksgiving Tangible vs. Intangible

Hello, everyone! This is Mylie from Edison Education writing today.

As most educators know, the holiday season is very difficult for many of our students. So many of our students lack basic needs much less all of the fun gizmos and gadgets that their peers have. Because this separation in economic status takes an all-time high during the holiday season, I decided that I wanted my students to reflect and appreciate on the things they already have. From this, my tangible vs. intangible lesson was born.

We started the lesson off by writing down examples of tangible or intangible things. I had to give my own examples first for scaffolding because my students did not know what tangible or intangible was.

From there, I had the students write down 3 tangible and 3 intangible things in their life they are thankful for on their own tangible/intangible sheet I provided for them. We then shared their favorite from each with the class and I wrote it up on our example board. Here is what they came up with.

I then had them pick the one intangible they are most thankful for in their life to place on their turkey. The students were very thoughtful with their choices. One of my favorites was a student of mine who tends to get into a lot of trouble. She said that she was most thankful for people giving her second chances when she messes up. Tear jerker!

Once they all had their turkeys finished, they got to decorate them and hang them in the hallway outside of my room.

Overall, this lesson turn out exactly as I had hoped. The students were very reflective and thoughtful with their responses. They also got to share so many positive things that are going on in their life that cannot be bought from a store. If you have a lot of at-risk students like I do, this may be a lesson you want to do with your own students in the future. It might just make the holiday season a little more bearable for these kiddos.

I put together the basic format for the tangible/intangible sheet just for you guys! Head on over to my store for this freebie as a thank you for everything every single educator out there is doing for our students! You are all superstars!