After learning about Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, Hawley Elementary School kindergarten students completed projects sharing their dreams.

Hawley kindergarten teacher Deborah Lubin explained that she started the annual lesson with her students roughly seven years ago. Since then, all kindergarten students at Hawley now complete the project.

Lubin said her class started the lesson by reading the “Martin Luther King Jr Day” book in the Robin Hill School series. The book, she said is “primary school friendly,” and, after reading the book together, the class talked about King. The story follows first graders learning about King, the “I have a dream” speech, and then they share their own dreams, according to Lubin.

So the Hawley kindergarten students did the same thing.

“They are thinking of things in a different way than when we first started this project,” Lubin said, sharing that the curriculum has changed over the years too.

Scholastic material was also used during Lubin’s lesson with the kindergarten students, to further share history around the “I have a dream” speech and how to solve problems peacefully.

“It was very powerful for them to see what Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, did,” Lubin said.

After the students learned how children once had to attend separate schools, Luibin said, “It really hit home for them how lucky we are where everybody can go to our school regardless, [and] how fortunate we are to all be together.”

Hawley kindergarten students created posters to share their dreams as a cap to the lesson, and the posters were then put on display in a hallway at the school.

Some of the posters say, “I have a dream people are kind,” “I have a dream my dog will stay healthy,” “I have a dream a dream we can all be friends,” “I have a dream for COVID to go away,” ““I have a dream everybody gets along, ““I have a dream people stop fighting,” “I have a dream everybody in my class is happy,” and “I have a dream people would live long.”

Education Reporter Eliza Hallabeck can be reached at eliza@thebee.com.