Using light and transparency to make art!

Using our friend's artwork as a direct inspiration for our artwork is a pure collaboration!  At first, the Tigers were wondering how can we do that?  How can we make something together with our friends when they live in Kontula?  This was the first time the Tigers used tracing in their artwork and they did an excellent job!

When they finished tracing we had a talk about the original artwork- what was the photographer trying to say with their image?  From that, the Tigers chose colors to try and bring that idea to life. We had a good discussion and compared the original artwork from their artwork they made. 

Colors and lines, make such a difference even if it's coming from the same source. We learned how we can "say" what we mean.

Thank you for being such an inspiration for us!

Sincereley,
Arlene, Floriin, Anna-Maria & The Tigers

The 5 year old artists at Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with the 5 year old artists from Päiväkoti Pihapirtti in Helsinki, Finland.

"Ladybugs"

When I got to Your School I was so happy to hear that another magical package from Moonstone Preschool in USA had arrived!! We opened it and pondered over the amazing questions the Full Moon artists posed to us.  In short, YES! We like Halloween too!!

For this next project, Weaving Environments, we thought about how the art technique can support the idea symbolically, but also practically.  Since the aim of this month's project was to  make a book cover, we first talked about the title of our story.  How do we unanimously decide on something when there are so many of us?  For example, when our friend wants to play a different game from you, how do we come to a peaceful conclusion?  The Tigers had so many lovely ideas such as take turns.  Seeing that we are such a big group, we thought to take a vote, which is something the Tigers do in the classroom too.

Here are the many different ideas that the Tigers came up for the title of their story. 

Everybody could have one vote. And the winner is Ladybugs!!

This was the first time the Tigers had a go at weaving. They all did an amazing job taking their time and making sure that they are going under and over when needed.  They got very good at seeing where things need to be corrected, which is a big part when one is weaving.  The artists could choose if they wanted to write the title 'Ladybugs' or draw ladybugs on the book cover.

I am so proud of them and they are of themselves, which is the most important part!!

We hope the Full Moons like our patterns, weavings, and book covers!

With love,
Arlene, The Tigers, Iveta, and Atefeh

The Tigers from Your School Espoo, Finland are making and sharing with the Full Moons from Moonstone Preschool in Philadelphia, USA. Both groups are 4-5 years old.

The Universe and beyond!

Dear Art Friends,

We at Oakdale Montessori really enjoyed this project as it touched on a part of our curriculum. With our theme being the Universe. We’ve been learning about all the planets and we were able to zoom in to show the children that there is more than just one continent that they live on, on the planet earth.

We showed them that the earth is round with our Continent Globe and showed them how to read it as a map on a 2D surface.

With this we showed the children that the only way to get to our “Dear Art” friends is by an airplane or by ship and that is how we will be sending our art.

The children pointed out where we lived and then where their friends are.

Hope you enjoy our art as much as we enjoyed making it.

With love from
Oakdale Montessori

The 3-6 year old artists at Oakdale Montessori School in Cape Town, South Africa are making and sharing art with the 3-4 year old artists from EtonHouse Bilingual Pre-school in Singapore and the 1st and 2nd graders from Grunnskóli Fjallabyggðar in Siglufjörður, Iceland.

Shadowing our shadows in Singapore!

Moving from shadows of constructions to shadows of people was interesting. Shadows that move and shadows from still objects differ. Sometimes objects do not move but their shadows do.

When Arlene shared a sample of a picture of shadows, I pondered how children might think and draw about their shadows . Initally children drew the shadows of their friends at the carpark.. Then they drew shadow images of their friends on the paper. It was tough for friends to keep still. But what was even more challenging was drawing their own shadows. They shared that it was nearly impossible after trying.  Watching a shadow drama on youtube helped children realise that they could actually form different shapes with their body. 

Sometimes the shadows do not look anything like how we expect them to be. E.g. Caitlin formed the shape of a table but the shadow formed under her was different from the shadow that appeared on the side wall. The shadow did not appear like a table on the floor. Sometimes they look abstract and formless but at times they look like something else, decieving our eyes.

This was what children shared:

Jordan: Can you see an elephant spraying water? Can you see a lion eating a Zebra? Can you see a giraffe trying to fight a tiger? Oops! I forgot to draw the tiger!

Xi Wen: Can you see a giraffe? Can you see a dinosaur? Can you see a sea-lion? Can you see a chair and a castle?

Lin Jia Wen: Can you see an elephant eating a carrot? Can you see a Prince and a Princess?

Oliver: Can you see a lion growling?

Leeann: Can you see a panda at the Zoo? Can you see the Prince and Princess too?

Emilia: Can you see a giraffe eating leaves? Can you see a human shadow?

Caitlin: Can you see lines inside each of the shadows? But how can a shadow dance by itself?

Advaith: Can you see armours here? Can you see a dinosaur roaring?

Aahan: Can you see a shadow of a lepoard? Can you see the shadows on my name?

Avinaash: Can you see the shadow of a tiger? Can you see the shadow of a tall building and a house?

Warm Regards,

Rachel

The 3-4 year old artists from EtonHouse Bilingual Pre-school in Singapore are making and sharing art with the 3-4 year old artists from Oakdale Montessori Preschool in Cape Town, South Africa.

Listening to who is there

We introduced this theme in a very special way. The class sat in a big circle and closed their eyes. The played the Montessori “Silence Game” which is a calming, meditation like game which allows the child to use their senses like hearing. Once they closed their eyes, I asked them to tell me what they can hear.

- The trees in the wind
- The birds chirping
- The doorbell ringing

We got the children to paint, colour in and stick paper to make 3 sounds that they heard.

Enjoy our art project! 

Love,
Oakdale Montessori 3-6 years class

The 3-6 year old artists at Oakdale Montessori School in Cape Town, South Africa are making and sharing art with the 3-4 year old artists from EtonHouse Bilingual Pre-school in Singapore and the 1st and 2nd graders from Grunnskóli Fjallabyggðar in Siglufjörður, Iceland.

The thinking child- Building understanding of the world

Children were conversing about hearing the Rooster crow in the mornings. But did they really hear the rooster crow or was it something they have read from books? (In Singapore, we do not have farms. We could probably find chickens at the Singapore Bird Park). They shared that sometimes they hear things but don’t get to see the things. E.g. noisy garbage truck,  birds chirping, dogs barking. The children were given an opportunity to think about their individual environment  and the noises heard. Even the noises heard at school differ from that at home and sometimes similar. Children expressed themselves through drawing (paper, markers and pencils) and spoke about them.

Warm Regards,
Rachel

The 3-4 year old artists from EtonHouse Bilingual Pre-school in Singapore are making and sharing art with the 3-4 year old artists from Oakdale Montessori Preschool in Cape Town, South Africa.

Exploring what a home means to us

We started by asking ourselves what home means to us. Then we went outside and in pairs, pretended we were visiting each other's homes. We described our homes, what they look like, what is outside in our gardens, playground, etc. then we came back in the classroom. We closed our eyes and imagined we were coming home from school. What does our front door look like? Do we live in a villa or apartment building? What is outside our home? We thought about these details and then began by making a drawing of our homes. Half way through class we came together and shared a few drawings. We made positive comments and then added one or two things that we thought could be added to the drawings shown, like the people who live in the home, the number of the house, etc. we also talked about what makes Dubai different from other places. What types of trees do we have (Palm and others), are the shapes of our roofs and villas unique? Then we went back to our seats and added more details. In the second class we reviewed our drawings and used them to help us create the pop up card in color.

Thank you,
Liz

Below are photos of KG2E art works.

KG2E class from Collegiate American School in Dubai, United Arab Emirates are making and sharing art with the Tigers from Your School in Espoo, Finland.

Below are selected artworks from KG2D.

KG2D are making and sharing art with the Monkeys. The young artists are 4-6 years old.

We are larger than life!

Toti, Zeynab and the Tigers were getting ready to create pop ups! They could not wait to show me and their friends in Dubai the dinosaur helmets they made!

We started the workshop with taking a mental journey to our home. What do you we see in the living room? Which couch do we like to snuggle up on? How does that couch feel? After taking a tour we looked closely at different kinds of texture. We then practiced different drawing techniques on how to create texture.  Putting all of our knowledge together we created our pop-up homes that tried to capture what we like the most in the place we feel at peace.

Nit: A chair I use to relax. All my family can sit on it. It's gray, black and white and it's very smooth.

Neh: I have a sofa in my living room I use to relax and watch tv. It's made of hard cushions. I also have an eating chair.

Raf: I have a soft bed with pillows. My home is very colorful.

Vih: I have a gym room in my home where my mommy keeps my cloths. I have a toy dinosaur that is rough and I play with it.

Ume: My home has a seat in the living room. We eat there. Our seat is big. It's cold and icy, it's blue and yellow. We have pictures of stars, moons, and snowflakes.

Pau: This is my sofa. It's in my living room and it's white. It's a little bit hard and it's made of wood.

Adr: In my home there is a sofa in the middle and there are some decorations on the carpet. The sofa has white, red, green and brown decorations on it. The sofa is made of wood and has comfortable cushions.

Dha: This is my home when I was a baby. The sofa was brought by my mom and dad. And while my big sister was at school I always sat on the sofa with my mommy. The sofa is brown. It was soft and comfortable, but now it's a bit old.

Lil: This is my kitchen where I eat food. There are 2 chairs. One is my sister Elle's and the other one is mine. My chair is made out of wood and some soft material.

Ath: Here is my living room. There is a big tv and black curtains. We sit on the ground and chairs. The ground is soft and brown. I like to sit on the ground to watch tv.

Welcome, friends, to our home!

With love,
The Tigers, Arlene, Toti, and Zeynab

The 4-5 year old Tigers from Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing with the 4-6 year olds in KG2E from Collegiate American School in Dubai, U.A.E. 

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

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.

Autumn in Berlin

I am happy to send you some pictures of our wonderful artworks. Our kids depicted our environments as they see it -  full of autumn colors and favourite places. You can hang our environments both from day side and from night side, they are equally beautiful!

Best regards, 
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.

Tigers are grateful for their gifts from Mexico. And then make more art!

The Tigers were so very happy to receive artworks from their friends from Mexico!!  We read their letter and then proudly put their artworks on the classroom wall.  Gracias amigos!

For the Look around project we started off by revisiting where our characters live.  When we stepped out of our character's home, What did we see? What was there? What was the environment like?  Everybody's imagination took them to a different place!  We thought about what this environment looks like in the daytime and at nighttime.  Using wax crayons and watercolors, we made our imagination come to life!  

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.

ISH shares their Layers of Love!

The artists in K1 never seize to amaze me!  Each of the artist's home, which they made using scratch art technique is unique just like their character.  We started off the session by remembering who our characters are.  We dove deeper into our stories and lives of our characters and talked about what their homes were like.  What does the outside of their home look like?  What about the inside?  We used our own homes as reference.

K: The Ninjagos are playing outside in their yard on a sunny day.

DEV: Spiderman is dressing up in his house to get ready to fight the bad guys.

V: Elsa is coming inside her house to have snacks.

SH: Elsa is playing outside in the park, but all of a sudden it rains so she ran inside her house.

DEE: Elsa went outside and saw a swing and then she went on it. She saw a bean stalk and climbed up it and saw a castle and a giant.

G: Elsa is looking out the window and she saw somebody. She ran outside and played with them.

K: Elsa coming home from the market.

AI: Elsa lives in a home. She's looking at the Caste's garden.

SA: It's quiet inside the home.

MI: He lives in a den. He is hiding from the fire outside. He is safe inside.

EN: Living on the rocket, they are flying far away with the rocket. They are eating food inside.

SP: There is a tornado with spaghetti and meatballs in it.

SH: It is a car park with some tractors.

KA: Ninjago and doodle are making spaghetti.

AL: Piccachu is playing football outside the house.

SAT: The boy is playing with his toys inside the house.

As you can see everybody was open to exploring how we can use this technique to understand spaces and the revealing process of the different layers involved in life and in art practice.

We hope our friends in Mexico like it!

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.

The Tigers know how to love!

The Tigers really amaze me with how present and creative they are! As if we were in the homes of our characters we were drawing the interior and exterior of their houses.  Brilliant!  Each one is unique and takes you to a special place.

Everybody was eager to draw with oil pastels and paint.  At first the scratching came as a bit of a surprise, but once they realized the affect it would give, they experimented away!

We hope our friends in Mexico enjoy our artwork and stories!

With love,
Arlene and 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.

Naturally and artistically!

From natural materials picking to using microscope convertor, our children became investigators zooming into this little gadget to look closer into the plants in our environment.

Following that, they did mark making on the clay using tools such as sticks and twigs to create lines similar to the ones on the leaves. This encouraged them to transfer their observation onto pre-cut paper before coloring using different mediums such as crayons and colour pencils.

Our final episode of this project was drawing a spiral and cutting along the line to create beautiful mobiles for our friends in Mexico!

Nurul'Ain, N2B teacher, and her 3 and 4 year old artists from EtonHouse Bilingual Pre-School in Singapore are making and sharing art with Marianna Diaz and her 4 year old artists in Nursery B at Colegio San Patricio in Monterrey, Mexico. 

Connecting, developing, exploring, and integrating through making art

Making a connection at home and in school
Our children wanted to have a clearer view of their exterior home hence they drew simple pictures to represent different things such as potted plants, grass, building and windows. This guided them into thinking of the smaller details that exist in their home environment.  In this experience, our children reinforced on their fine motor dexterity while learning to manipulate the writing tool while expressing their creativity through representational drawing.

Developing a sense of appreciation
Home-school partnership was present when our parents contributed into our inquiry learning by sending in pictures of their child’s favourite spot at home. Our children were actively participating in ‘Show and tell’ sharing about why they love that particular spot and how they would feel if it was taken away. This experience created a sense of appreciation of what they have and made comparison to children in other countries who may not have the same privilege.

Expressing creativity through drawing
While making doodles using the oil pastel, most of our friends observed the colour change when the colours overlapped while others were very focused on covering the white spots of the paper. There was an exchange of prior knowledge about how their individual homes look like from the outside view.

“My building is not tall. There’s only three floors.’’

“Mine is at level twenty-four but it’s not scary.’’

‘’There are lots of plants outside my home so I need to water them otherwise they will die.’’

Exploring technology
In creating a fond memory of our drawing, we included technology and learned the importance and efficiency of making copies using the photocopy machine. Here, our children identified the red and green buttons. Literacy was involved as they learned to spell the words ‘start’ and ‘stop’. In addition to that, they observed how the machine is operated and the process it takes to print a paper. Sounds of the machine captured our children’s attention as they listened attentively while the machine is making copies of their home exterior drawing.

Integrating inquiry with Math concept
After all the learning at the photocopy machine, our children sat down and began matching the original to the duplicated copy. When someone asked, ‘’How do we know whose are these?’’, another friend took initiative to bring in their name cards. It was a clearer view looking at everyone’s copies of work and this created a sense of achievement and teamwork for everyone in class.

Exploring different textures using different mediums
In order to identify the different view of our homes, we used different mediums to represent our home from exterior and interior view. At the initial stage, the exterior part of our house was the focus as they drew and coloured using oil pastel followed by covering with a layer of acrylic paint. Soon after, our children learned the ‘scratch’ art technique as they explored different tools and drew their favourite spot in the interior house while referring to their photo from home.

Sending a message through letter writing
As we learned that words contain messages, our children verbalized their messages to their friends in Mexico while the teachers wrote it on the paper for our children to trace over. While doing so, some of them identified sight words such as ‘you’ and ‘and’.  Although it was tricky in ensuring the film stayed still while they were tracing, most of them were meticulous and patient in fulfilling this task. 

Regards,
Nurul'Ain

Nurul'Ain, N2B teacher, and her 3 and 4 year old artists from EtonHouse Bilingual Pre-School in Singapore are making and sharing art with Marianna Diaz and her 4 year old artists in Nursery B at Colegio San Patricio in Monterrey, Mexico. 

Feeling happy in Singapore : )

We finally got mail from Mexico! Our children were so amazed to see a big envelope in each of their private letter box. Upon admiring the materials used to paste within the boundaries on the crafts, some of our children shared their prior knowledge about the story The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and did sequencing of the days of the week and matching the food crafts accordingly. 

Regards,
Nurul'Ain

Nurul'Ain, N2B teacher, and her 3 and 4 year old artists from EtonHouse Bilingual Pre-School in Singapore are making and sharing art with Marianna Diaz and her 4 year old artists in Nursery B at Colegio San Patricio in Monterrey, Mexico. 

The Layers of Love from Berlin!

I am happy to send you some pictures of our scratch project and the amazing stories of our creative artists. Our kids were delighted to see the new colorful images coming out as they scratched using very different tools: plastic forks and knives and other sharp objects. Some of them depicted inside of the place where the character lived, others displayed the outside.

Here are some of our stories:
Basti: This is a house with a chimney and smoke comes out of the chimney, down there is grass and the sun is up in the sky. Here I have a door and two windows. And here is my bed. 

Raphael: This is a house. Out of the chimney comes a thick smoke. It has a door and windows. Near the house explodes an askumet. In the front of the house are large cobblestones.

Leyla: It's a man with a house, a letter box and a tent. The house is full of ghosts. The doors and windows are broken. In the left corner is a heart for the monster. 

Maya: It's a scratch tree. It has leaves and they have different colors. It was a cat who scratched it all about!

Linus: It's inside the place but it's not my place because my place is very far away.

Aya:  It's a house. A heart. It's my house. It's raining outside and snows sometimes.

Lyn: I was in my room and my sister was in her room. My father wanted to go to Aldi (supermarket) to shop and then there were two monsters next to the house. The monsters were nice and wanted to get married. The sun war shining and my sister looked out of the window and so did I . The girl monster had a necklace.

Tarja: This is inside the house. There is one circle inside it. There is an umbrella with a very long holder. Here is a 4, that's how old I am. 

I am sending the parcel out today, hope it arrives soon and safe. And our friends in Mexico like our pictures and stories a lot.

Best wishes,
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.