I Have a Dreamcatcher...

One of my sweet friends did this activity a few years ago, and I just had to replicate it for my students this year!  I've got pictures to share, but first I'm going to tell you how it went down.  I started the lesson by showing the kiddos a dreamcatcher (that I found at dollar tree) and asking them to talk to a friend about it (have they seen one before, do they know what it's called, what it's for, etc.).  I then read them "The Legend of the Dreamcatcher" which I found online and typed up.  I then showed them the "Bad Dreams/Good Dreams" t-chart and asked them to listen for words for each while I read "A Picture Book of Martin Luther King, Jr." by David A. Adler.  Afterwards, we recorded the bad things from MLK, Jr's life (segregation, violence, hate, bombings of houses) and the good things (equality, peace, Nobel Peace Prize, love) on our chart.  I gave each student a paper plate that I had cut the middle out of and had them punch 9 holes around the middle, and 3 holes on the bottom (they did this in the morning, before announcements).  I let each student pick their yarn color, beads, and feathers.  I showed them how to get started, and then they watched me make a dreamcatcher.  Some of them got frustrated, they had a hard time "staying in the middle," they wanted to take the yarn around the outside of their plate.  Once their dreamcatchers were finished, they wrote two "bad dreams" and two "good dreams" on the part of the paper plate that I had cut out (but you could use regular copy paper).  They cut out the dreams and then glued them to the dreamcatcher.  The "bad dreams" are caught in the web, waiting to be burned by Grandfather Sun's morning rays, and the "good dreams" are turned into dew and are sliding down the feathers to return to the Earth.  This took a reeeeealllly long time to complete, but it was worth it, the kiddos have a deeper understanding of the "I Have a Dream" speech, as well as MLK, Jr's life.  Now, pictures!!