Language Arts, Writing, Writing Process, Social Studies, United States History

Grade 1- 3

Objective

Students will gain an understanding of the dream of Martin Luther King, Jr. They will think about our own dreams to make the world a better place. Students will practice writing in complete sentences, improving typing skills, changing font size and style, copying and pasting clip art, and resizing clip art.

Directions

Procedure
Discuss the significance of Martin Luther King, Jr. with your students. Explain the dream he had that all races would be equal. Ask your students if they feel King's dream has come true. If they think it has not, ask them how we can help make it come true.
Ask your students to think of dreams they have which would make the world a better place. See the next page for several examples. Younger students may be asked to think of one dream while older students should be able to think of several. Encourage students to think of dreams that would benefit a great number of people.
Students should type the title, I have a dream... at the top of the page. Then, have students copy and paste a picture of Martin Luther King, Jr. on the page. Next, students should add as many text bubbles as they need. Students should type one dream in each text bubble and change the font size and style to fit text in each bubble. Finally, they should proofread and spell check the work, then print it.
Take some time for students to share their dreams with the class. Ask students how they could make one of their dreams come true!
Extension Ideas
Compile all of your students' dreams into a class book. Allow students to check out this book for a short period of time. Encourage students to learn more about Martin Luther King, Jr. and talk about ways to turn dreams into reality.

Resources

• word processing program or a paint draw and graphics program
• digital images of Martin Luther King, Jr. (from the Internet, CDs, or scanned images)
• copies of example page (see link below)