The Dream Flag Project


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Ideas for the First Week


What's the Dream Flag Project?  That's a question we might want to start with to let our students know that we're doing something that's not just in our school, but in schools across the country and the world. This year, there will be students as far away as Nepal making Dream Flags, and there are students in at least nineteen of the United States.

Here area some places to see what Dream Flags is all about:

Participant
List
List of the 55 schools that have signed up so far. Some have links to their school sites. See where they are.
Look Who's Dreaming A partial list of participants with pictures, some linked photo galleries, etc. Some include links to Yahoo Maps to show where they are.
Poem
Videos
Videos of students from different schools reading their Dream Flag poems. (PC format or for Mac's with Windows Media Player.)
Flag Examples
Hand Written
Typed
Others
These are examples of flags made by students from different schools. Some show flags where the poems is written by hand. Another sample shows flags where the words are printed onto the cloth (more complicated.) There are many ways to make them.

Students may want to get going right away, but it's great to start with a few Hughes poems that your students will like. "The Dream Keeper" is a sort of theme poem for this project. It's an easy one to memorize.

We can sing it as well with "The Dream Flag Song" Here are some useful links.
Copy of "The Dream Keeper"
Hear "The Dream Flag Song."
Music and words for "The Dream Flag Song."


Hughes Background

It's also nice to start with some background on Langston Hughes. There are lots of books with this kind of information and some excellent web sites as well. Some of the sites have Hughes poetry and even a recording of him reciting his work! We have a list below at Langston Hughes and Writing Resources.

Birthday Present for Langston Hughes
If you want to celebrate the birthday of Mr. Hughes, here's a small-group assignment to get it going. Groups have to create gifts of word for Langston Hughes with their own idea or one from the list.
Birthday Present for Langston Hughes: Word document or Web Page

Dream Flags Lesson Plan for Elementary and Middle School
If you want a lesson plan for the whole project, we have one designed for six forty-minute class periods.
Click here to see a printable page of the plan. It covers an introduction of Langston Hughes, some study of his poetry, and drafting of original dream poems by students.

Prayer Flag Background
Another place to start is with the idea that this project will take our dreams and make them fly. Our inspiration comes from the concept of Prayer Flags, and here's a page with links to many examples along with some explanation of how they are intended to bring good wishes and positive hope to all: Prayer Flags Page


The Dream Flag concept was created by sixth grade teachers Jeff Harlan, Sandy Crow, Helen Holt and others at The Agnes Irwin School, Rosemont, Pennsylvania, U.S. The Dream Flag Project (www.dreamflags.org) is a collaborative project facilitated by Jeff Harlan and Sandy Crow. Contact dreamflags@agnesirwin.org or Jeff Harlan, Dream Flags Project Director, The Agnes Irwin School, Ithan Ave. and Conestoga Road, Rosemont, PA 19010, U.S. A.

. . . for Helen