Age range: 3-6

Theme Area: Making Dream Catchers

Related Episode: It Happened One Nightmare

Subjects/Skills: Emotional Development; Art

Materials Needed:
Paper plate or circle-shaped paper
String or yarn
Old magazines
Glue
Hole punch or scissors

Directions:
Invite your child to make a dreamcatcher. Dreamcatchers are a tradition of the Ojibwe tribe. They were used to "catch" the nightmares of children. (The circle represents how the sun travels through the sky. The web in the circle catches all the bad dreams, and the small hole in the center is where the good dreams can pass through.) Explain that your child can make his own version of a dreamcatcher. He can fill his dreamcatcher with pictures of things that make him feel happy so that he will have happy dreams.

Let your child look through old magazines and tear or cut out pictures of things that make him feel happy.

Give him a paper plate and a glue stick. Ask him to make a collage by gluing the pictures onto the paper plate.

When your child is finished and the glue has dried, punch a hole in the top of the paper plate. Then, thread some string or yarn through the hole so that you can hang the dreamcatcher.

Ask your child to choose a place near his bed where he can hang the dreamcatcher. Let him know that his dreamcatcher will catch all the bad dreams, and send happy dreams to him at night.