Citrine Band's Monster Exploration

Citrine Band is home to students ages 9-11 and is led by Shirvan.

This school year has been full of newness and change, and at Brightworks we have welcomed all of it with open arms. We couldn’t be happier in our new home in the Presidio, and in order to fully explore our new home together we opened the year with a three-week mini-arc (“Presidi-Arc”)! So, before I get into the story of the Monster Arc, let’s begin with a recap of the Presidi-Arc.

Presidi-Arc week one

Our priorities for the first three weeks were to build community and get to know one another and our new environment. Every day, we spent a few hours outdoors hiking around the Presidio, exploring and mapping where we went, and talking with each other. Everyone in the Citrine Band brought in a special “artifact” to share for us to learn about them, and we all contributed to making our beautiful new bandspace look and feel more like home. The collaborators organized experiences for kids from different bands to interact with one another, such as the all-elementary scavenger hunt the whole-school field day at Crissy Field. The Citrine Band also began their partnership with their Obsidian “band buddies” which will continue throughout the school year.

Presidi-Arc week two

Our second week in the Presidio found us continuing to explore the “neighborhood,” finding places for focused work, imaginative play, nature walks, tree climbing, reading, or just relaxing with friends. Back in the bandspace, we learned more about one another’s identities by exploring our family’s migration histories - a lesson inspired by Aida Salazar, author of In The Spirit of A Dream. We also began our daily mindfulness practice routine, took a walk to the Presidio Community Garden with Quartz Band, and put a lot of thought and discussion into the making of our community agreements (take care of each other, take care of yourself, and take care of the place). We capped off the busy week with an incredible whole-school event: a celebration of Latinx culture and heritage, where we got to meet Aida Salazar and listen to her read poems, create Latinx-inspired art and crafts, dance, and make and eat tamales!

Presidi-Arc week three

We got to know our Obsidian band buddies better by conducting interviews with them and finding out what we had in common. As a follow-up to Aida Salazar’s inspirational presentation, students wrote their own “in the spirit of a dream” poems. We continued exploring the Presidio and made a giant multiplication chart outdoors. Students discovered a banana slug habitat with Rich, got a tour of our new shop space with Rob, and began planning for our overnight camping trip.

Monster Exploration week one

For the Monster Arc arc opening, Citrine kids brainstormed huge lists of everything to do with monsters: what does ‘monster’ mean?; questions about monsters; monsters in myths and legends; animals as monsters; people as monsters; monstrous places; monstrous feelings; monster books; monster art, movies, music, etc. We began a long-term collaborative shop project - making planter boxes for the back porch - and the kids demonstrated awesome teamwork and practical math application. We continued our cross-band community-building by doing a Golden Gate Bridge walk with Obsidian and a journey to the new Tunnel Tops park with the other elementary bands. We also finished planning for our upcoming camping trip to the monstrously-named “Devil’s Gulch” campsite in Samuel P. Taylor Park.

Monster Exploration week two Camping at Devil’s Gulch in Marin County was a truly unforgettable experience. The kids showed remarkable teamwork and organization in planning and preparing meals, setting up camp, and encouraging one another through a strenuous eight-mile hike. It was an amazing bonding experience and a sign of how close and strong our community had become after just a few weeks together.

Back at 682 Schofield, we finished constructing our planter boxes and had our noses in books for much of the rest of the week as we sought out monster-themed books and gave them “monster ratings.”

Monster Exploration week three

After returning from our successful camping trip, this was a week of several new beginnings in our monster explorations. We began reading the novel Race to the Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse, a book about a Navajo girl who sees monsters and vows to go on a quest to defeat them with her brother and best friend. We began an introduction to algebra, a monster-themed “fence and gate” problem. We began writing literary responses to the books we read, both independently and as a group. We began preparing for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). We began painting our planter boxes. And on top of all that, we took a field trip to the Asian Art Museum with Quartz Band, where we were inspired by works of art both ancient and modern and the remarkable stories that accompanied them.

Monster Exploration week four

We went on two more field trips this week that got our creative juices flowing: The Legion of Honor museum and SCRAP. At The Legion of Honor, we visited the Guo Pei “fantasy couture” special exhibit. At SCRAP, we learned how to reuse items that would otherwise end up in the dump and stocked up on arts and crafts supplies. Inspired by the amazing Guo Pei dresses, we purchased several dolls which students used as templates for designing their own dresses and outfits. We also began designing “monster stuffies” for a sewing project. Kids also continued planning the characters and plot for their NaNoWriMo story, and worked on making decorations for the exteriors of their planter boxes. It was a highly creative and artistic week for Citrine Band!

Monster Exploration week five

We kicked off the week by joining Garnet Band in learning about Diwali and making clay diyas, and ended it by designing games for the entire school to play on Halloween. In between, students learned and practiced their sewing skills as they brought their monster stuffies to life, and we continued our well-established routines of NaNoWriMo prewriting, Race to the Sun book club, mindfulness practice, and daily math “date problems.”

Monster Exploration week six

Appropriately, the final week of the exploration phase of the monster arc began on Halloween! Citrine Band kids also began their weeklong puberty education classes this week and we officially launched the first draft phase of NaNoWriMo. After many days of planning and pre-writing, the Citrine authors had no trouble staying focused on writing for extended periods of time every day to start the month. We continued to use our book club experience with Race to the Sun as a mentor text for writing conventions, as well as a resource to prompt our discussions and inquiries around Native American Heritage Month.

Reflection week

During reflection week, students worked on achieving some closure with a couple of ongoing side projects, wrapped up their puberty education classes, and gained a lot of momentum with their NaNoWriMo project. We visited the Presidio Nursery with Quartz Band to learn about how they are revitalizing the Presidio with native plants. Students also continued learning about Native American history and current issues. A major theme for this week was reflecting on the monster-related themes we encountered during the exploration phase of the monster arc, and doing some serious brainstorming for project ideas.

Research week

On our last week of school before the Thanksgiving break, we took a field trip to the De Young Museum with Quartz Band where we got to see the Faith Ringgold special exhibit - a powerful critique of the twin monsters of racism and sexism in America. Back at school, students got acquainted with the declaration approval process. They narrowed down their project ideas, found partners with like minded interests, set production, research and skill goals, and used their new laptops to collaborate with their group members on a project declaration slideshow to be presented during declaration week. Students went into the fall break with a well-deserved sense of accomplishment thanks to all their hard work during the exploration phase!