Dream Catchers

Suggested Group(s): Young/Middle/Teen

Purpose: To allow group members to share their fears and or dreams and to help manage frightening dreams

Task/need: Approaching the pain of the loss, living on the grief spiral, continued support

Activity Setup Ideas:

• This is a good activity to use if the group members have mentioned having nightmares or difficulty sleeping following the death. A good way to start this activity is to ask if any of the group members have experienced bad dreams. They can share these with the group and the group can also discuss what they do when they have bad dreams
• Share the background information about dream catchers

Materials:

• Metal hoops
• String
• Feathers
• Beads

Description: Give each child a metal hoop (or the rim cut from a paper plate can be substituted with holes punched in for looping). Tie a loop at the top of the circle and then loosely loop the string over the circle and bring the end through to the front of the circle (fig.1.) Continue this all the way around the circle about an inch or two apart (fig.2). (Do not pull the stitches tight against the circle). Take a second string and loop it through the string connecting the two stitches together. Do this all the way around the circle. This should start to pull the string slightly towards the middle. Repeat this with additional rounds of string until just a small opening is left in the center (figs3 & 4). Group members can add a bead or two at any time on the string to represent a spider. With each subsequent string, the stitches should become smaller.

At the center hole in the dream catcher, tie a string to the loop and dangle 6-8 inches of string from the loop. Tie a feather on the end. Group members can also add beads just prior to the feathers if they would like. They can add 2-4 feathers on their dream catchers.

Activity Wrap Up Ideas: When finished creating their dream catchers, the group members can take dream catchers home and hang them above or near their beds. Discuss other ways to help manage nighttime dreams and/or fears.

Suggestions: As mentioned, this activity can be done by cutting the center out of a paper plate and leaving just the rim of the plate. Using a hole punch, holes can be put about every inch to two inches apart and the string can be looped out of these holes. Continue rounds of string as explained above.

Background information: Dream catchers are a Native American tradition. Share with the group that dream catchers were designed by the Indians to catch bad dreams. The dream catchers were hung near the beds of sleeping children, and it was believed that bad dreams would get caught in the web of the dream catcher. Good dreams, however, would be able to get through the small opening in the middle and slide down the feathers to the dreamer. This was a way to have the Indian children protected from nightmares.

(Adapted from dream-catchers.org)

Adapted from www.dream-catchers.org and www.nativetech.org