Flight (and other stuff)

*This post is brought to you by the Orange Band students: Lucy, Justin, Roman, Amiya, Nora, Charlotte, Jeevan, and Phoebe. This post contains thoughts on the week, musings on what students would like to study, observations about projects and excursions, and helpful information. Enjoy!* Flying Through the Airby RomanThis week we were working on a kite and then we flew them at Bernal Hill. Thursday we saw Gever paraglide at Mussel Rock beach in Pacifica. We also have been reading The Kite Fighters. It’s a really great book, because we are now learning about kites and how they work. We also built a table for our band space so it would be more cool. Last week we did the marshmallow challenge in our band. Last Thursday we had the potluck at Brightworks. Mussel Rock Beachby NoraOn Thursday the Orange and Teal bands went to Mussel Rock to watch Gever paraglide. During our Mussel Rock excursion we saw a coyote,  learned about Mussel Rock’s movement and history and learned about Gever’s paragliding suit and chair. Apparently Mussel Rock was moving over the years to come were it is and it is not the same kind of rock that is around it. It is on the cost of San Mateo County, California, offshore from Daly City. 

Paraglidingby AmiyaLast week the Orange Band went with the Teal Band to Mussel Rock Beach to watch Gever paraglide. It was moderately cold, which is Gever’s prefered temperature for paragliding. When we got there, we walked along a dirt path and up to a hill. Gever then showed us what everything in his 50 pound bag was as he unpacked his paraglider. When he had unfolded the wing, he had us stand back and caught a gust of wind. With the paraglider open, he walked up a hill and was just about to take off when his paraglider wing fell from the air onto a prickly  bush. He untangled the wing and walked up the hill and off a cliff where he dropped down, but quickly rose to a much greater height. Gever came over to where we were and flew over our heads. He was only about 8 feet higher than where we were so we were able to talk to him briefly. Towards the end of his flight, we walked down the hill and saw a coyote that ran away from us as we made our way to the triangular patch of gravel where Gever was going to land. After he safely landed, he showed us a video he had taken from the air. I thought it was interesting to see Gever walk into the air and fly with only a wing, some very thin cords, and a chair. Out and About This Weekby JeevanThis week Gever went paragliding at Mussel Rock Beach. We watched him paraglide. It was fun. I also made a really big kite but I never got to fly it it. Instead I made a really OK-sized kite. I ended up taking apart the big  kite. We went to Bernal Hill this week too. And that is where we flew our kites.I've Caught Kite Fever!by CharlotteI was really interested in Korean kites and so I researched and found this legend:Once upon a time there lived a general named Han Hsin, he had to get into the enemy’s palace,So he called on his soldiers to fetch him his kite. The next day they went to the palace. He held out his kite to measure how much length between the palace and his troops. Then he told all of his soldiers to dig and dig ‘till they had gotten underneath the palace. Then he tied his kite (which was a dragon kite) to a nearby tree, some say he tied it to the tree to ward off Enemies or evil spirits.But others say it was to distract the enemies. Here are some other cool facts about kites:

• Kites were first invented in china when an old farmer tied a string to his hat so it wouldn’t fly away.

These are some types of kites:

• Diamond kite
• Delta kite
• Box kite
• Winged box kite
• Dragon kite

Kites have come a long way from a hat tied to a string  to the kites we have now today!  Korean Kite Inspirationby LucyThis week our band was making kites I decided to make a Korean fighting kite. I decided to make one because our whole band was reading a book called The Kite Fighters it's sort of good but I haven't finished it yet so I don’t know. The kite fighters is set in Korea and they fly kites. At first we used plastic straw like things and weird connect things to make models. Then we made the actual thing with bamboo and rice paper. We used them today mine spun a lot I don’t know why but it did and it looked cool. It was really fun making the kite  it was exciting to see the kite that I made actually fly if you count spinning really fast uncontrollably as flying, if you don't at least it wasn't dragging on the ground all though it did hit the ground awfully hard and it did tare  a lot. Any way it was fun and that's all that matters!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 😻 : )Thoughts From a New Brightworks Studentby RomanI moved schools. I was at Children's Day School. It wasn’t so hard as I thought to move schools, because I had some friends. They also have a lot of freedom at Brightworks so I like that because I get squirmy a lot and they let you take a break when you need Moving to SF and Brightworks by JeevanI moved 1 or 2 weeks before school started. I moved from Illinois. The weather was different in Illinois. It would get colder and hotter, but never like California which is in between. I also met a lot of people in California. I take the train to school a lot .                                                                                                            Next By-Air Mini Investigationby PhoebeFor our next dive into the arc, we should study vampire bats because they are really interesting. And they, well, are just really interesting! Bats are the only mammals that fly. Common Vampire Bats (Desmodus rotundus) are the only mammals who have a blood only diet. Vampire bats feed on mammals like cows and horses.  Vampire bats attack animals from the ground. Baby Vampire bats are called pups.Vampire bats only have a few teeth. I think we should study these animals because they are misunderstood (and evil! AND SO AM I! MUA-HAHAHAHAHA!) Stuff We Should Doby JustinWe should make hover boards or video games or robots. Or computers. Then we should go on a vacation (excursion) to somewhere really fun. Then we should make a treehouse  in our bandspace, then we should do NaNoWriMo in the treehouse, and we should be able to play video games in our bandspace. Then we should get a tv and lots of movies and games and an xbox and a VR set and stuff. Then we should rewrite the dictionary and make it the Totally Educational and Not Silly at all Dictionary for Kids, and sell it, then buy toys and pillows with the money and then we should make a giant pillow pit and make a pool and other stuff in our bandspace, then we make 734 more floors and have a free everything-you-want vending machine and then get everything we want, then go on summer break. Then build a copy machine, copy the earth and destroy one earth with a giant laser beam. Then build a make stuff machine and copy it lots with the copy machine and make lots of stuff. Orange Band members also finally decided on a table design and put in hard work making a true and solid table frame. A helpful hint: Triangles!