Alethea and Sigi have been working on these pieces inspired by the ‘collaging’ in the last project as well as their experiences over the recent lockdowns. They have experimented with making sounds with what was available to them, banging together pebbles, using hairbrushes to play the ukekele, using their voices as instruments and playing each other their favourite piano pieces.
8 years old
Intrigue, Identity and Illuminating words
2020, Finland, United KingdomCommentOn being unique- from molecules to ancestry
2020, Finland, Mixed age group, United KingdomCommentOh my! Our first package has arrived!
2018, Finland, USA, 1st GradeComment
1B class in Helsinki, Finland were soooo excited to have received such a big package full of fantastic greetings and pictures from their new friends! Most of the children in the class have not visited NYC yet so their friends’ description of what Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens are like gave more juice for the imagination than you can begin to imagine!
Everybody first had a go at reading their friend’s letter by themselves. I think that the kids were too excited to focus on the words! After everybody had read their letter they started their response. Some wanted to start by drawing a picture and others immediately wanted to answer their friend’s questions.
This was wonderful as we got to practice how to be conversational on paper. The questions the New Yorkers asked were just lovely! How many people live in Finland? What is the weather like? Do you have any pets? There was a range of questions, but what was also lovely was how open and sharing everybody was. What a welcoming start to a long distance friendship!
We read and responded to the letters at school and soon realized that this was also a great opportunity to involve the parents. The parents helped the kids write their responses and find out facts for the curious New Yorkers. For example, we learnt that there are more people living in NYC than all of Finland! I think the parents had fun finding all of this information with their child : ).
The package will be sent to USA first thing tomorrow morning. Keep your eyes peeled!
With love,
Arlene & 1B
The students in Grade 2 (7-8 years old) at NEST+m in NYC are making and sharing art with the Grade 1 students at Ressun peruskoulu (7-8 years old) in Helsinki, Finland.
Draw or write what you hear
2018, China, FinlandComment
During the third project students were asked to listen to audio recordings from their friends in China. They were instructed to draw or write anything they heard that sounded like a word that was familiar to them. They could use Swedish, Finnish, and English words for the listening exercise. As we listened students, wrote words that they heard or that came to mind and drew pictures to accompany the words. When the listening exercises was over the students used mixed methods of collage and coloring to complete their images. Using bits cut from maps they created lines connecting their images to one another. They really enjoyed listening to what their friends had to say. Thanks so much to our friends in China! We really enjoyed collaborating with you on this project!
Sincerely,
Rachel Kangas
The artists in Grade 2 (8-9 years old) at Taizhou Pheonix Primary School in Jiangsu, China are making and sharing art with the artists at Linguajoy (7-10 years old) in Helsinki, Finland.
The artists from Linguajoy translate their environment and Easter!
2018, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, ChinaComment
Our third Dear You project took place during the week leading up to Easter vacation. The students were asked to create a Easter eggs and while working they discussed their activities and what their environment looked like.
The first group was a bit shy but we discussed what we were going to say and even rehearsed saying it a few times before we created our recordings. The second group of students were very excited to describe their environment and discuss their families Easter traditions.
Sincerely,
Rachel Kangas
The artists in Grade 2 (8-9 years old) at Taizhou Pheonix Primary School in Jiangsu, China are making and sharing art with the artists at Linguajoy (7-10 years old) in Helsinki, Finland.
This is our story!
2017, 4th Grade, China, Collective Art, Dear You Art Workshops, United KingdomComment
We had the most fun doing this project! The class really enjoyed looking at all of the images sent by the children in Jiangsu, China. They all chose different images as inspiration for their stories, working in pairs they told their stories to Heather, even making their own sound effects. Heather then chopped up their stories and put them together to make ‘their story’ and played it to them after they had just performed their Christmas play. They laughed a lot and enjoyed hearing their own voices!
I noticed that many of the stories encompassed the ideas embedded within the project…asking questions, making friends and reaching out to others. I would like to get the children to draw this story now and create a montage with the original images.
It was a perfect end to a fantastic project and I am sure that it is an experience that they will always remember. I have really enjoyed getting to know the children and going on this journey with them and you all! See you in 2018!
Thanks Dear You!
Heather Connelly
The artists in Class 4 (8-9 year olds) at Sneinton C of E St Stephens Primary School in Nottingham, England are making and sharing art with Grade 3 (9-10 year olds) at Taizhou Pheonix Primary School in Jiangsu, China.
"This is us"
2017, China, United KingdomComment
Year 4 have had another fantastic art project with Heather on Friday. The children started off by discussing the artistic journey they have been on so far and the relationship they are creating with the children in China. Lots of pupils suggested titles for their work which revolved around the idea of a team identity, and the title we have decided upon is 'This is us'. As a class, we felt this showed how all of our art work is a representation of our characteristics, personalities, likes, dislikes and artistic talent.
After having chosen the project's title, we then had a fantastic session with Heather where the children created a book cover using weaving. We used all recycled material, and some children even used practice pages from previous Dear You art projects to incorporate within their weaving. I hope you will agree that the woven book covers they have produced are excellent! They have all used lots of different colours and types of papers.
We are all looking forward to creating the next piece of artwork!
Many thanks,
Alice Wilby
What I noticed about this session was that the pupils really started to think for themselves and to make connections with the other projects they had done, they had really enjoyed receiving and looking at the work that their partner class had sent and integrated some of their ideas into their weaving, introducing hidden flaps for their title – so the dialogue becomes evident in the art works they are producing. The children said that they used the visual clues in the work that they received to imagine the questions they had asked when they couldn’t read the Chinese text, I wonder whether they would have done this had they not answered the same brief. I am also impressed with how thoughtful the children are and concerned with how they can communicate their ideas to those in China.
Best wishes,
Heather Connelly
Dear You Workshop Leader
The artists in Class 4 (8-9 year olds) at Sneinton C of E St Stephens Primary School in Nottingham, England are making and sharing art with Grade 3 (9-10 year olds) at Taizhou Pheonix Primary School in Jiangsu, China.
I am unique!
2017, 8 years olds, 9 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Dear You Workshop Leader, China, United KingdomComment
Heather Connelly, local artist to Nottingham and Dear You workshop leader, introduces to Class 4 where there new friends abroad live. In China!
Class 4 had a fantastic art workshop thinking all about the topic of what makes them unique and how we are all different. After having completed some homework beforehand about their families, appearance, DNA, likes and dislikes, travel and heritage, the children were ready to explore their ideas in art. Heather showed us some fantastic images of how celebrated artists have created pieces focused on the differences in the human body and the idea of a map to represent uniqueness. The children then discussed how they were all different and how this diversity can be represented in artwork. The children loved comparing their fingerprints, as well as talking about their different heritages and how this influences their daily lives.
After discussing the ways in which uniqueness and the idea of 'self' could be represented in art, the children then started practising their own ideas. Many children created a pencil drawing of the lines of their hands and their fingerprint. The patterns created on paper were brilliant! One of the children commented, "My fingerprint is completely different from my friend's. That means I'm unique. That's pretty amazing!" I hope it is clear that this uniqueness is expressed in the children's fantastic artwork.
During this practice stage, many children were fascinated with how lines and simple patterns could be so effective in artwork. They soon realised that art is not a perfect picture with recognisable objects; it could instead be a representation of themselves through basic lines, swirls and strokes of their pencils. The children then used carbon paper to transfer their drawings, which created an interesting texture on the paper. Some pupils loved using the carbon ink to create more texture, which represented their own characteristics!
Having looked at all of the pieces of artwork, I think it is apparent that Class 4 are a very talented and unique group of children! No piece of artwork is the same, and the little slips of paper tell the story of the artistic process for each child.
We are all very excited to receive the artwork from our partner school and to complete our next piece of art!
Many thanks,
Alice Wilby
The artists in Class 4 (8-9 year olds) at Sneinton C of E St Stephens Primary School in Nottingham, England are making and sharing art with Grade 3 (9-10 year olds) at Taizhou Pheonix Primary School in Jiangsu, China.
Vienna in autumn looks like a magical place to be!
2015, 2nd Grade, Dear You Art Workshops, Austria, EstoniaCommentHello!
In Vienna, we had autumn when we were doing the pictures. Trees have beautiful colours, apples are falling down, it is getting cold. So the kids made pictures from our season outside. They had a lot of good and funny ideas to show this! :) You will see it in the pictures!
Hope you are all fine!
Best wishes,
Simone
The 7-8 year old artists from Evangelischen Volksschule am Karlsplatz in Vienna, Austria are making and exchanging art with the 8 years from Mooste Põhikool in Mooste, Estonia.
