Schoolwide Mural Project Inspires Watershed Connections
At Malcolm X Elementary School in Berkeley, the sound of laughter rang through the air as students skipped, jumped and cartwheeled along a winding, fifteen-foot mural depicting Derby Creek. Hopping from boulder to painted boulder, students called out the names of native plants and animals included in the mural, each composed of brush strokes made by many small hands. The mural traces the actual path of Derby Creek, which runs under the Malcom X Elementary School campus. In the painted mural pathway, pollinators hover around native lupine and poppy blooms, a school of steelhead trout swim upstream to spawn, and a bobcat crouches in the underbrush, illustrating the ecological richness of a local natural creek.
KIDS for the BAY (KftB) Communications Coordinator Amy Asmussen interviewed Malcolm X Garden Teacher Rivka Mason and local muralist Prisilla Hine, who collaborated with all 500 Malcolm X Elementary students to bring this project to life, with the help of the KIDS for the BAY Blue Watershed Classroom program. Rivka and Priscilla shared the delights and challenges of this schoolwide project, the mural’s role in engaging students in watershed education at Malcolm X Elementary School, and how artistic expression is a vital tool for helping students connect with, and care about, their local environment.
KftB Executive Director and Founder Mandi Billinge also joined the interview and met with the Malcolm X Elementary School students playing and learning on the hopscotch mural.
“I am so thrilled to see this beautiful Derby Creek mural at Malcolm X Elementary School! This was one of our very first KIDS for the BAY partner schools, 34 years ago. The Malcolm X teachers that I worked with, back in 1992, were so enthusiastic and dedicated. Over the years, many more classes have participated in our spring field trips, our Storm Drain Rangers program and our Blue Watershed Classrooms program. Malcolm X Elementary School’s long term commitment to environmental education is so inspiring!
Mandi Billinge, Executive Director and Founder, KIDS for the BAY
Q: Tell me about the schoolwide mural project. What inspired this project? What was your creative process?
Rivka: I have been part of some Indigenous circles out in nature, and at one of these gatherings, one of the opening questions was, “What is the closest water source that you live by?” I didn’t know, and that made me realize that I didn’t know my own watershed. I had heard about that creek running underground in Berkeley. I Google-Mapped it, and I realized it runs right under our campus. I thought, hey, why don’t we highlight it? There’s a lot of creeks that are highlighted and celebrated in Berkeley, including Strawberry Creek and Temescal Creek. I wanted to draw attention to Derby Creek at Malcolm X. These conversations planted the seed that grew into this project.
I involved Priscilla Hine, and we began to collaborate. Priscilla is a local muralist who lives right across the street from the school. I took all my students–I work with transitional kindergarten (TK) through third grade–and I worked with them in the garden. I did a watershed lesson, thanks to the KIDS for the BAY Blue Watershed Classrooms Program, which provided me with a whole bunch of curriculum and materials. Students did scientific drawings using KftB’s creek organism ID cards, and Priscilla worked from those drawings.
Q: You participated in our Blue Watershed Classrooms Program in 2024-2025. What are some highlights that stand out from your KftB Blue Watershed Classrooms Program? What aspects of the curriculum were most impactful for your students?
Rivka: Visuals are everything when one teaches. The visuals and posters that KftB provided are very powerful. Having the right materials available to us was key.
Q: How have you used this mural to enhance your garden lessons and curriculum?
Rivka: I am discovering that I can use the mural to supplement the curriculum every year. For example, in first grade, students study animals. I start by instructing the first graders to line up alongside the mural and look for an animal that they might know. I tell them to turn and tell their friend what they know about that animal. When they are studying the animals, they have their Scientific Journals in hand, so that they can draw different parts of the creek ecosystem and the animals they are learning about.
We featured a variety of local species in the mural, including lady beetles, California red legged frogs, steelhead trout, a Great Egret, roach fish and perch. One of the stones by the creekside is actually an enlargement of all the microorganisms and aquatic invertebrates that live in the creek.
Q: What inspired you to create the ecological hopscotch activity on campus?
Rivka: When I met with our principal, Alexander Hunt, to show him what I had in mind, he said, “Let’s make it an interactive ecological hopscotch!” He is so excited about this mural. That was the buy-in: to make it interactive.
Q: Can you describe how your experience was working with such a large number of students? Can you describe the different roles/responsibilities of each grade level?
Rivka: It was exciting, but also very challenging, to take on such a big project with so many students involved. We decided that the younger students should paint the background. We gave them very tiny brushes and we assigned “patches” for each student to paint. Priscilla colored the outlines, and she had all the kids fill in the colors. It was like a giant coloring book.. We painted all the water a monotone blue to start with, and added other colors and textures later. While they were painting, we talked about the rivers and creeks, and the animals that live in them, to get their ideas flowing. Priscilla had a small group of kids who wanted to help during their lunchtime. There was a whole crew of kids sitting here painting with Priscilla during recess, and the conversation was precious.
Priscilla: The fourth and fifth graders did a more intensive study. We collaborated with Jessica Login, the Science Teacher here at Malcolm X. In the fall, Jessica’s students studied different native plants and animals. Each student did a scientific drawing using the KftB creek organism ID cards. From these drawings, I selected a variety of organisms that would be included in the mural. I made a stencil with each drawing, and the fourth and fifth graders painted the animals using my stencils. The fourth and fifth graders had more time to work on details, and that gave them a sense of responsibility for the project. They loved it. They wanted to paint all the time.
KftB Communications Coordinator Amy Asmussen also interviewed Malcolm X students who worked on the mural as kindergarteners. “It was so fun!” reflected Ethan. “I remember which part I worked on!” said Isabel. “Same!” replied Violetta. Together, they raced to show Amy the sections of the mural where they had carefully added vibrant brush strokes. “I was part of one of the first classes to paint the mural!” said Twyla, eyes alight with pride. “I got to work on the mural with Ms. Rivka and I painted this bird!” said Santiago. “I worked on the waterfall!” said Ethan. “I’m naturally an artist and this project was really fun!” said Brie.
Q: Tell me about your work as a Muralist in Berkeley.
Priscilla: The first mural I did in Berkeley was the mural here on Ashby Avenue. I worked on that as part of a team of artists and the lead artist was named Edith Boone. She has done many murals in the Bay Area. She was my mentor. I was an elementary school teacher for forty years at a private school called Head Royce, and I just recently retired, so I am used to working with kids. I did lots of murals at Head Royce, too. When Rivka contacted me with her idea about making a Derby Creek Mural at Malcolm X, I couldn’t wait to bring it to life.
Q: What about this project excites/inspires you? Why do you think art is an important tool for connecting people with their environment or local environmental issues?
Priscilla: It’s really fun to work with kids and art. Art is a form of expression, and when students are working with something that has to do with nature or the environment, they can express their feelings and their love for the environment. Art is a really important tool in getting kids to love the environment. Making art about the local watershed helps them develop a sense of empathy and compassion for their environment. That compassion will take them to the next step as they get older and they start advocating for the environment.
Q: How do opportunities for creative freedom and art education benefit students in your community? Why do you feel it is important for students to have opportunities to be artists in the classroom?
Rivka: “We do a lot of scientific drawing in my garden classes. Students take their journals and go find a place where they can draw something in the environment in detail. Anytime they do a piece of art or a scientific drawing, there’s a noticeable change, their energy shifts. Art allows them to focus and engage.
We do a lot of different kinds of art in the garden. We use art to document how the garden changes. The first graders make drawings to depict how the apple tree looks at four different times of the year. They gain ownership and familiarity with that apple tree, and they know when the fruit comes and when the flowers come. It’s not only ownership, but reverence. I want them to learn and feel connected. It’s also valuable to give them opportunities to pay attention to the art that nature itself creates. In the garden, they can observe Roger’s red grapevine crawling up the willow tree and learn that nature is an amazing artist and engineer. They begin to appreciate the interdependence of all animals and plants and humans, and the beauty that nature provides. Students are always so excited to discover all the different creative and artistic things they can do with nature. We make our own pigments from the flowers and leaves. One first grader said, “Nature is amazing! We can paint with flowers!” Nature is not only a subject and a medium for art, but also an artist itself.
Q: As the mural project nears completion, what impacts have you observed in the students? Particularly, how do students reflect on their work on the project? What is the biggest success of the project?
Priscilla: Creative freedom is unfolding before our eyes. You can witness the joy. It’s all about connection. We all have to connect to our environment in order to care about it. Creative freedom is a way to build community, to build memories, and to build connections with each other. They will come back and say “I painted that fish” and they will feel proud of the mark they have left on their school campus.
