Stirring the imagination!

Artworks from the artists at Кепская школа им. Ортье Степанова (Kepa School) in Karelia, Russia

We received wonderful works from Russia and many of the class in SVK were inspired by them. This time we did the environment and the means of transportation. Children made their means of transportation and the environment. The work from Russia ( underground mine and diamonds) stirred kids imagination. Many did the imaginative diamond world as their destination.

The artists from 2B at Suomalais-venäläinen koulu are making and sharing art with the artists from Кепа школу (Kepa School) in Karelia, Russia.

Artworks from Suomalais-venäläinen koulu

From Candy Land Finland to Karelia!

Hi Arlene! Yesterday we did the workshop in SVK with 2b class. I think everyone was interested in mobiles. I showed them the mobiles the Karelian kids made. There wad no letter from Russia. I think our workshop went fluently because everyone could make their favorite character in the environment that they like.

Everybody had different approaches to their environment. A few girls drew their favorite pets or just animals and the environment was candy land. Some drew magic land without characters, I thin there was Rapunzel and her tower in one drawing. Many drew animation and game characters.

Kristina Laine

The artists from Кепская школа им. Ортье Степанова (Kepa School) in Karelia, Russia are making and sharing art with the artists from 2B at Suomalais-venäläinen koulu.

Spirals from Russia!

Ученики Финско-русской школы в Хельсинки получили художественную посылку из России. Ребята из Кепской школы им. Ортье Степанова  (п. Кепа, Калевальский район, респ. Карелия) рассказали об окружающей среде в в которой живут их герои, нарисовав ее на спиральных скульптурах. 

Это третье задание 4-х месячной сессии проекта Дорогой ты осень-зима 2016г. Присоединяйтесь к нам! 

The artists from Кепская школа (Kepa School) in Karelia, Russia are making and sharing art with the artists from 2B at Suomalais-venäläinen koulu.

Finland is feeling the love!

Dear friends from Finland:

Happy New Year!!  We received your projects!!

We are so excited, we received your projects and we loved them!!  Thank you so much, we hope you enjoy our projects too. Did you receive Elmer?

The kids were so happy to see the packages, we opened them and we saw all the projects you made for them, they were talking about it, they loved Elsa, Pickachu, the robot, etc...

We have a special place for all your artworks.

We hope you like it! 

Love, 
K2B, Ms. Gaby and Ms. Kasandra

The 4-5 year olds in K1 from International School of Helsinki in Finland are making and sharing art with the 4-5 year olds from Colegio Bosques de las Cumbres in Monterrey, Mexico

Venturing with the artists at Viertola School!

For our 4th meeting in Viertola School, in Vantaa I had prepared a slideshow of different modes of transportation. The images inspired us to think how these machines work, and we discussed ways to travel to places, for humans and fish, birds, and animals. Looking at inventions such as child seat on a bicycle or a sleeper train, we talked about journeys we take on our own and with a friend. 

The artists talked about their own travel experiences. Some travel home to a different country almost every weekend! 

Reflecting on the collective piece of art the artists created

Recycled materials worked well, I was very pleased to see students sharing materials with one another and creatively approach not only the design of the machine, but also of the environment around it. One artist even changed the “Air, Land, Water” to “Past, Present and Future”, to suit his time-travelling apparatus. 

As the artists were finishing their work, we gathered around the table in a Dear You corner that Kirsti had created, displaying artworks and letters from our friends, and talked about the scratch art homes that had just arrived from Canada. We had some exciting discussions in small groups, trying to guess where each of our friends’ character lives. Thank you for sharing art with us, teacher Dance and your wonderful students! 

Artworks from their friends at Ryerson PS in Ontario, Canada

Anastasia, Kirsti, and 4A class of Viertola School

The 4th graders from Viertolan Koulu in Vantaa, Finland are making and sharing with the 4th graders from Ryerson PS in Ontario, Canada.

The Tigers make their way to Mexico!

I was so very impressed with how imaginative the Tigers were!  Some even made a three-dimensional boat to travel to their friends in Mexico!  Before getting started on the artworks we first had a good conversation about what vehicles were and how different vehicles travel.  The Tigers then decided to try to make some that fly, float, and go underwater!

The Tigers collected ice cream wrappers and candy wrappers from a recent birthday party to use for the collage. Have you ever had Penguin ice cream?

Thank you!

With love,
Arlene & The Tigers

The Tigers from Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with Nursery A from Colegio San Patricio Cumbres in Monterrey, Mexico.  Both groups of artists are 4 years old.

Our connected world!

K1 makes creative connections!

We have been getting to know ourselves and the world through making art.  Now let's put all the pieces together and make a collective piece of art which shows different ways to get to our friends in Mexico!

As we were using recycled materials, the artists realized that this was also a sensorial experience! They smelled the empty coffee bags and thought that this could help with the travels :).  Some K1ers said that Mommy likes to drink coffee.

Submarines, flying helicopters, jets, and more!

Thank you!

Our best,
K1 and Arlene Tucker

The 4-5 year olds in K1 at International School of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with the 4-5 year olds in K2B class from San Patricio Colegio in Monterrey, Mexico.

Here's a panoramic view of K1's world!

A school of fish create a sea of inspiration!

The artists in Finland were very excited to have received their artworks from Mexico!  When they saw the fish we thought it would be great to create a collective piece of art and make a giant ocean. You will see colorful fish, mermaids, ships, and sharks!

Thank you, Ms. Laura Garza and Prepri A, the group of 6 year old artists from San Patricio Colegio in Monterrey, Mexico.

With love,
Arlene Tucker

Spiraling their way from Canada to Finland!

We received the spirals and shared them the class. It was interesting to watch the kids guessing the day/night side of the spirals.

Our art is on the way. The characters are traveling using different kinds of transportation.

Our spirals (project #3) should arrive at the same time with the project #4 (different kinds of transportation). The kids wrote letters in English. There was a group of students who were eager to write in Finnish Language. They used Google Translator. We are not sure about the accuracy of our translation, but I am proud of the kids who came up with this idea. 

Dance Agapieva-Vasileska
Grade 4
Ryerson PS

Dear You art project, Look around

The 4th graders from Ryerson PS in Ontario, Canada are making and sharing art with the 4th graders from Viertolan Koulu in Vantaa, Finland.

Creative inventors in Berlin find a way to reach their friends in Mexico!

I am happy to send you some pictures of our creative discoverers from Berlin. 

The kids did not stop surprising us introducing the most unbelievable ways of getting to their friends in Mexico: starting from making a bridge and walking all the way to Mexico till the most innovative technologies with flying cars and submarines....

Here are some of the the stories and pictures of our journey: 

Emil: under there is water and up there is air and we break the air to get to Mexico.  

Raphael: From Germany we take a submarine and it sinks totally under the water. The clouds make lots of fog and we cannot go further for a time.

Basti: We take the submarine and the sun is there, the full moon and the earth. 
In case someone attacks us (the sharks) we can take the other submarines.

Aya: We can fly with an airplane and drive with a car. There is enough splace for my mama and papa.

Tarja: These are my parents and me. We build a bridge to Mexico and walk there.

Samira: We are in Germany and we go always around and around and when we want to go to Mexico we have to go out of this circle and take this way. This boat has wheels and this is an airplane and a smaller airplane.

Sonia: This is a girl who swims to Mexico. She puts up wings so that she can fly over the water. The airplane broke and the submarine broke as well. The girl has left her mask in the broken airplane. The sun gives warmth to the girl. The girl takes the snail to Mexico because the snail lives there.

Leiff: The boat pulls the car all the way to Mexico. 

Mia:  It's a car with ten wheels. This car can go up because of the sticks and the airplane can fly the car behind it. We go to Mexico all together, my four brothers and sisters and my father and my mother. 

Leyla: There are two boats, a ship and a submarine, my family goes in a ship and I am in the submarine alone. The airplane is for the seagull that wants to go back to Germany.

Best regards and thank you very much for organizing this beautiful project.

Happy Holidays and all the best!
Lusine 

Lusine Boyajyan and her group of 4 year olds artists from Kita Felix and Friends in Berlin, Germany are making and sharing art with Angy Castillo and her  Kinder A group from Colegio San Patricio in Monterrey, Mexico.

Making, sharing, and then talking on the phone with our friends about it!

Kids were really excited about this project, they kept thinking about places were their characters could live and almost everybody came up with more than one idea, and so, they asked for the opportunity to make 2 or even 3 projects. 

Andres said that his character lived in disney because it was the happiest place in the world. 

Renata said that her character could live in the beach because he loved to swim in the ocean. 

Anabella and Sofía Ayala came up with a make-believe land were their character could live, because after all, characters should be able to live anywhere we can imagine!

This was by far the most enjoyable project for my kids and I was delighted to see them so excited creating beautiful pieces for our friends in Nottingham!

Global Classroom:
The day finally came when we were going to meet our art pals! Kids came really early to school so we could make the time difference work for everybody. 

We had a computer ready to make the facetime call but for some reason the connection was not being successful. So, us teachers exchanged our phone numbers and used our mobile phones to make it happen. 

My students' faces were priceless when they saw their friends live! They sand and danced for them, and they watched their friends do the same for them! They exchanged questions and got to know some differences about our schools. I have to admit they were kind of jealous because in Nottingham they get 3 breaks and they only get 1! We got to sing happy birthday to a beautiful girl who happened to have a birthday that day!! 

They asked questions about what was the time, how was the weather, how they get to school, what do they eat for lunch, etc. 

For the rest of the day they kept talking about this amazing experience, and can't wait for us to have another global session! 

I can't thank you enough Arlene and Nina, for making this happen!!

Xoxo,
Vicke Benavides

The 5 and 6 year olds in Prepri C from Colegio San Patricio in Monterrey, Mexico are making and sharing with the 5 and 6 year olds in Class 1 from Sneinton C of E Primary School in Nottingham, UK.

From Canada to Finland- we are making connections!

These are the images of student vehicles that they created. They had the option to use any materials in the class or from home. They could create a real or fictional vehicle and describe whether it was for land, air or water travel.

A few students (large yellow wheels) and a long one with a parachute and green propeller actually wired them to operate (electricity was our first big project of the year).

Teacher Kaarina Losey

The 6th graders at Ryerson P.S. in Cambridge, ON, Canada are making and sharing art with the 6th graders from The English School in Helsinki, Finland.

From Russian Karelia to Finland!

Here are drawings of the characters and their homes created by the artists in Karelia.

Ученики Финско-русской школы в Хельсинки получили художественную посылку из России. Ребята из Кепской школы им. Ортье Степанова  (п. Кепа, Калевальский район, респ. Карелия) придумали дома - гравюры для своих героев. Это третье задание 4-х месячной сессии проекта Дорогой ты осень-зима 2016г. Присоединяйтесь к нам! 

The artists from Кепа школу (Kepa School) in Karelia, Russia are making and sharing art with the artists from 2B at Suomalais-venäläinen koulu.

Looking around and what do we see?

Here are the photos of the spiral artworks for Look Around project. The index cards are their explanations of their artworks. Some of them painted outside, some painted inside because it had gotten too cold the one day to paint outside of the portable! :)

These works are all on their way to Päivi and her students. They were posted earlier this week, so hopefully they arrive before the holiday break! 

Teacher Kaarina Losey

The 6th graders at Ryerson P.S. in Cambridge, ON, Canada are making and sharing art with the 6th graders from The English School in Helsinki, Finland.

Looking at Vincent van Gogh's and William Turner's works for inspiration!

We began the 90min meeting with 4A class in Viertolan Koulu in Vantaa, Finland by reading out reflection and feedback from teacher Dance and her wonderful students in Ontario. I feel that it is always important for the young artists to know that their art appreciated and valued. 

Preparing for the worksop, I found the suggestion to demonstrate artworks depicting different kinds of environments to the children very helpful. Together we looked at works by Vincent van Gogh and William Turner, and discussed how these artists captured their worlds. We talked about how light, colour and brushstrokes can tell us about the weather, time of the day and the season in the landscape. 

Here is our work-in-progress, both side of the circles before they were cut into spirals. A combination of pencils and markers encouraged the creation of some very vibrant worlds. However, some of the characters live in outer space, and day there is not much different to night. (A little bit like Finland right now) 

Thank you to Kirsti and Viertolan Koulu for welcoming me again. Can't wait to see the art we get from Ontario!

- Anastasia Artemeva

The 4th graders from Viertolan Koulu in Vantaa, Finland are making and sharing with the 4th graders from Ryerson PS in Ontario, Canada.

Abstract styles from Nottingham!!

We looked at pics on the internet of under the sea. The children were keen on making a list of all the animals that live under the sea.

Here are some snippets of conversations....

I think it's nice and warm
It might be dark and a bit scary
I like it in the dark... you can see awesome things under the sea
I think it's beautiful under the sea
I would like to look at all the animals under the sea
I like colouring it's fun because when you have finished you can play with it.
Spider fish
Electric Eel
Starfish
Swordfish
Seahorse
Elephant fish
Octopus
Hammerhead Shark
Stingray
Flying fish
Clownfish
John Dory
Puffer fish
Dolphin
Whale
Killer whale
Great white shark

Nina Evans

The 5 and 6 year olds in Class 1 from Sneinton C of E Primary School in Nottingham, UK are making and sharing art with the 5 and 6 year olds in Prepri C from Colegio San Patricio in Monterrey, Mexico.

Extending our inquiry into the world of 'Changes'

Mail Art 3 was another interesting project. It was amazing. We also extended our inquiry to 'Changes' in general where children talked about what 'Change' meant to each one.

What is change? What does it mean to children? Children usually use this word in context with clothes. However the meaning varies. Why are we talking about change here?

Children wanted to know if the changes in our environment are similar with those in other countries. Celin said that she saw snow in Korea. Emilia shared that it only rains in Singapore. Advaith shared that in some parts of India it snows. 

I started off by reading the 'Day and Night Monkey'. This gave the children the opportunity to converse about how night is different from the day time. A few children shared that they could only watch television for a while at night. Julian shared that there was once where the sky grew dark and he thought that it was night but it was not. It was going to rain. Ethan agreed with him and shared that the sky tricked him. He thought that it was going to rain but it was night time. 

I had an amazing time conversing with the children about 'Day' and 'Night'

Jordan drew about Night and Day Safari. He shared about how his mum enjoyed the fire show at the Night Safari and about how bright the fire was. He shared that the Night Safari was dark and there were no lights around except for the lights in the shelter. Emilia asked about why there were no lights. I shared with the children that sometimes when people go on a Night Safari, they do not carry torch lights as they might invite animals to them. Then Emila asked about what else they could do. I continued saying, " Maybe A fire torch where fire is used. Fire is hot and dangerous but there is a special way of using it so that you do not catch fire." Emila continued to ask, "But why fire?" Then I asked, " What happens to darkness when a candle is lit up?" Jordan replied, " It becomes bright." Emilia smiled and went, ' Oh yes!' Then children took off from there about how animals might shun away from the fire to protect themselves. 

Emilia drew buildings at LEGOLAND.She shared that the buildings were light green during the day and became very dark during the Night as she had to go to sleep. Everyone had to sleep too.

Jing Ru drew the Zoo. Jing Ru's focus was on colours. She shared about how the colour of the sign board appeared to have changed during the day and Night. During the day it appears Green and at Night it appears purple. Then she thought for a while and said "I think purple and red can make black." Great thinking! I loved it! Jing Ru can be given the opportunity to work with lights and paint of different colours." Then Adu came to me asking," What colour is this?" Pointing to a dot made by maker on his paper. When I said purple, he continued," It looks purple here right? But when I turn the paper to the back of it, it looks brown. How is that? "

Jeongwon drew her Mummy in a garden. She painted a story about how her Mum got eaten up by a shark when she went out. And that night her dad had to cook for the children and they all slept. In the morning, her Mum returned. She realised that she had been dreaming.

Ethan drew flowers and volcanos. He shared that some flowers bloom during the night and close during the day. Moreover he said that they can be found in india.

Adu drew Volcanos and shared that when everything is dark during the night, as the Volcano erupts, the lava will be bright. Besides he shared that not all the volcanos would erupt.

Xi Wen drew a legoland building. She said that the building is very colourful during the day. But at night, it will be dark only the windows will have colours and light.

Leeann shared about going to her cousin's house with her family. In her picture she drew the sun low that it almost touched the ground. She said it is going to be night time as the sun is going down. She also shared that everything(flowers)grow big during the day.

Julian shared about going to the Supermarket with his Grandma during the Night. He also shared about going to his cousin's home and playingswords during dinner. He had dinner with his parents' friends, went back and slept. He woke up in the morning and had his breakfast. He shared that he had the snack which Nicole had placed in the birthday goodies bag. Then he played tennis which was bought by his Grandpa from Kuala Lumpur. When it is morning, I saw a moon but it was not clear.

Nicole: It is Morning. I have drawn the eyes of Morning. Can you see the rainbow? I see the sky and the sun and the rainbow in the morning. At night, i see the Night star. I can see the birds flying and sleeping. My pool is blue at night and it is the same in the morning.
Celin: Night time is dark. The stars are sparkling. The sun is coming soon. Morning, someone gets up and smells the flower. The sun was hot and someone goes into the house. Then it was almost Night time again. 

Avinaash: I drew the sun and moon. When I wake up in the morning, i see the Sun. When i sleep in the Night, I see the moon. Then the sun come up again. Then the clouds also come out.

Zhi Han drew a girl and a bunny and drew told a story. ' There was a girl. It was the first day of her own life. When the girl goes out, she sees the biggest sun in the world. The girl finds a swimming pool which is icy cold and has toy sharks inside. Then the little girl sees a bunny hopping by. She feeds him carrot as he is hungry. Then the little bunny wanted to follow the girl home. The little girl took him home and asked her Mummy if she could keep the bunny. Her Mummy said, " You can shower the bunny and you can play." And then it was Night time and the bunny slept beside the girl on the bed. And she read the story,' The Hunter who Got To the Forest' to the bunny.

Jia Wen drew the stars, moon and blue sky for the Night sky. She drew a sun and yellow sky for the morning sky. She shared that she could see clouds and Sun in the morning and moon and stars outside at night.

Hope you enjoyed reading the stories.

Love,
Rachel

Nursery 2A, 3-4 year olds at 215 EtonHouse Bi-Lingual Preschool in Singapore are making and sharing art with the 4 year olds from Nursery B at Colegio San Patricio in Monterrey, Mexico.

Finnish Russian School shares with Russia!

Today we had a workshop with SVK 2B class

Children were very interested in works they received from Russia. In our workshop kids drew home and things that relate to the topic. Boys were fast and did not want to engage with the scratching technique for too long, girls were more precise. I think they did very well and even talked about their works. So this is the result.

The photo where  pictures are  hanging on the wall is the one where we talk about the works we received. 

Kristina Laine

The artists from 2B at Suomalais-venäläinen koulu are making and sharing art with the artists from Кепа школу (Kepa School) in Karelia, Russia.

K1 have open arms for their friends in Mexico!

Today was an extra special Dear You workshop with the lovely artists at International School of Helsinki!  They were so excited to see what was in the package!  We read the letter from Kinder 3B and talked about their artworks.  Who is this frog character?  By looking at the artworks, what kind of personality does this frog have?  One of the best parts of this first share was reading the names of the artists in Mexico.  Some of us have friends or brothers and sisters with the same names!

Before the students came in from the park, Mrs. Maaninka showed me what K1 has been up to in their Unit of Inquiry, as part of PYP.  She showed me the great dioramas of the different landscapes and habitats they have been exploring. This subject coincided very nicely with the current Dear You project, Look around, which is about creating our character's environment using watercolors and wax crayons.

In circle time, we started off the workshop with an active discussion on what elements are in our environment.  When we step out of our school, what do we see?  The children said rocks, birds, trees, snow.  Oh, good thing they brought up snow!  I asked them, when I was here in October for the Layers of Love project, did we have snow?  No!  So that means our environment and our habitat changes.  We talked about these changes in relation to day time and night time too.  

We then shifted to our characters and thought about if we were at our character's home and stepped out for a walk, what would we see?  As you will soon discover, every artist in K1 was using their own imagination and making it come to life!

VA: In the day time there are bears who likes to wake up and eat berries. There are trees and lots of snow.  In the night time the bear sleeps so much under the moon light in the cave.

AR: In the day time it is sunny with a rainbow in the sky. At night time it is bright.

KES: Outside of Elsa's house is the blue sky, a bench, and yellow snow. At night time there are stars, sun, and moon, in the sky.

KEI: There is snow and it is dark at night time.

DEE: There are trees and it is dark at nigh!

MIC: Doodle saw two boxes and two dog balls. At night time there are star, trees, moon and one star is starting to break.

DEV: There is a house, trees, and raining rocks in the sky. At night time birds sleep in the nest in the dark sky with the moon.

SAS: In the day time there is sunshine and trees.

ENZ: In the day time you can see Darth Vader and rocks.  At night time you can see Star Wars, a princess, and Darth Vader.

SHR: In the day time, you can see a snake and princess Rapunzel. She was happy to see the sun! At night time, she is sleeping and there was a mouse.

GAU: You can see a boat on the water and mountains in the day time. At night time we sleep and the mountain looks like a letter.

ALE: This is Chewbacca's home. I am outside. There is a window. It is in the night time. It is a special house because Chewbacca lives there.

AIS: I drew a dog and he is going to sleep. It is night time. He has a tree home. There is a bear looking at his tree. It is dark outside.

SAT: I painted all sand.  There are snowballs. It is outside a boy's home. It is during the day, I see the sun. In the night time it is dark.

SPE: This is the night. The people are sleeping and the bad guys are trying to steal the candy. We are outside the treat's home. In the day time, I see candy rocks in the water. There is grass outside. The sun is shining, but it almost dark.

We hope you enjoy our artworks and stories!

With love,
Arlene and the artists of K1

The 4-5 year olds in K1 at International School of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with the 4-5 year olds in K2B class from San Patricio Colegio in Monterrey, Mexico.

Fresh air makes for a creative environment!

Dear Friends,

After enjoying the creation, fresh air, the wonderful sun and lovely coloured grass, we sat in a circle and imagined our favourite character. We talked about where our character lives, the surroundings and the colours in the environment. The children then used their pencils and created the different colours and patterns on the spirals.

We hope you enjoy our Art from the Early Childhood class at Oakdale Montessori!

The 4 to 6 year olds in the Early Childhood Class from Oakdale Preschool in Cape Town, South Africa are making and sharing art with Kinder C classes from Colegio San Patricio in Monterrey, Mexico.