NEW SHARON — Resource teacher Patti Murray stood on a ladder in front of Cape Cod Hill School on Friday hanging up dream flags students created in writing class.

Education technician Rebecca Lemieux, who held one of a string of flags, sewed the individual cloth flags together on pieces of ribbon and shoestrings.

The multicolored flags flapped in the wind. Friday was a celebration of Peace Day and Earth Day.

Students in fourth, fifth and sixth grades learned about author and poet Langston Hughes (1902-1967) and the “I Dream a World” poem he wrote.

Students set out to do their own dream flags, dreaming of a better world.

Hughes was a major poet during the Harlem Renaissance, a movement during the 1920s of African American writers and intellectuals who engaged in debate over the place of the African American in American life, according to the Website pbs.org.

The project was the idea of fourth-grade teacher Myrna Robinson, Murray said.

Fifth-grader Dawson Wells, who handed Murray twine and scissors, said he wrote in his “I Dream a World” that he dreamed that all people are nice and that there is no swearing.

“I dream of a world where there is kindness and caring,” he said.

Student Courtney Grundy wrote on her flag, “I dream of a world where bullying has no existence, where name calling is abandoned and not even thought of.

“I dream a world where all of us don’t feel bad because we are different. Where we can live without being told that some of us are different. A world I dream where we can be happy, feel confident about ourselves and live life to the fullest,” she wrote.

Other student flags were similar to Hughes’ message.

Students also made a sculpture of recycled items, including plastic bottles, cereal boxes, yogurt cups and cardboard tissue boxes.

During the first half of the day, they raked and cleaned the school grounds in recognition of Earth Day, which is April 22, the day before classes resume from school vacation.

dperry@sunjournal.com

Copy the Story Link