Blue: Planting Some Metaphorical Seeds

The Seed Arc started this week, and the Blue Band really hit the ground running.Yes, of course we talked about seeds in relation to plants. We had a Safeway Seed Scavenger Hunt, tried to sprout some beans and avocados and even cranberries, and also watched a documentary about how people try to control plants (but the plants actually control us!) But we also came at week one with a secondary angle: What if seeds are also a metaphor?In only a few days, this alternative seed perspective took the form of many new things:During Thursday's opening circle, I taught the school the alphabet in sign language. This new skills bloomed and spilled into Park Time, where Blue Banders sat near me to practice signing their names to one another and to ask me more questions. It was pretty amazing to see a simple 10 minute exercise blossom into a curiosity that lasted all day!With November upon us, this week we also began planning for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). Justine visited with the Band and talked about the novels that Brightworks students have written during past Novembers. We got to see some examples of the printed and bound copies of the books. With that seed planted, we spent the rest of the day setting word count goals and planning plots and mapping character flaws. And how can we talk about seeds without reading Raisin in the Sun?This week, we started reading the play aloud as a group (and we all discovered what a great actor Felix is). The play is giving us an opportunity to talk about lots of metaphorical seed related things: monetary investment as seeds, dreams as seeds, and this coming week, we'll be talking about the character Mama and her obsession with a potted plant.The play takes place in 1959, so we also began some research about what it was like so many years ago. What did things cost? Who could vote (and not vote)? Why was this year so important? And why on earth are we reading this during the Seed Arc?Like most good seeds, most of these answers will only blossom with time.(Last -- check out our cool new plant shelves!)