Dear You Art Project

Mail Art + Pen Friends = Dear You Art Project

Hanoi

Enjoy your meal : )

2016, 4 years old, 5 years old, Collective Art, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, Pre-School, South Africa, VietnamArlene TuckerComment

What a creative and colourful project this was!

We have learnt so much about ourselves and our friends across the oceans by doing this project. The children were so excited to show off all of their new geographical knowledge. We have marked all of the places we know on a large map, so now we can easily find them. 

We remembered all of the projects in this series so far, our masks decorated with skin patterns, our rhythmic paintings using so many painting objects and our food book. Now it's time to combine them all! We started a discussion about our dinner table, and what we need to put on it. Plates, knives and forks, chopsticks? What about under them? We need a beautiful table cloth or placemats. We gathered a range of objects in different shapes and sizes. We found cd's and blocks, triangles and rectangles and squares. 

We started by choosing one shape and we made some traces with it. Then we chose a second shape and then a third if we wanted. We watched how the lines overlapped and it made different shapes on the inside.

When we were finished it was time to colour! We coloured each section with a different colour. How amazing and bright they looked with all these beautiful colours.

When we were finished we all looked at each other's and tried to put them together to make one big table cloth, but we decided that it was much more exciting if each guest at our international dinner table had a different piece of art under their plate.

The children have absolutely loved being a part of the Dear You project. Now as the little Tiger cubs and Puppies graduate their last year in kindergarten, they enter big school with knew knowledge of cultures, geography, creativity and wonder. 

Thank you for letting us be a part of this project and we hope to continue work with you in years to come.

Lots of love to our friends overseas,
Teacher Steph, the Tiger Cubs and the Puppies.

Below are pictures from the workshop with the Puppies.

Below are pictures from the workshop with the Tiger Cubs.

The 4 year old Puppies from Just Kids in Hanoi, Vietnam are making and sharing art with the artist Tigers at Your School in Espoo, Finland.  The 4 year old Tigers at Just Kids are making and sharing art with the 3-6 year olds at Oakdale Montessori School in Cape Town, South Africa.

The Music Moves the Tiger Cubs and the Puppies

2016, 4 years old, 5 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, South Africa, VietnamArlene TuckerComment

WOW! What a great art project! The children absolutely loved this project and they produced some wonderful pieces that showed their thoughts and feelings from the music.

We started off this project by closing our eyes and listening to some music. I chose Simply Three's instrumental version of Avicii's Wake me up.

I chose this song because it has some clear layers of music that will attract different students. I also chose an instrumental song because English lyrics might be too difficult for us at this stage. 

After listening to the song once, i replayed it and we broke down all the different parts of the song. The beats, the high pitched violin and the deep base sounds and we started to draw on the whiteboard what we think those sounds looked like. 

A very popular response was spotting on the board to the beat, and doing swirls and waves to the melody.

What about the colour? What colour does it sound like? Blue? Green? Red??

Now it was our turn to paint! We had a range of medium to paint with. We had paintbrushes-thick and thin, chop sticks, cardboard toilet rolls, scrunched up paper and tissue.

Then the music started again and we were ready to go. The children were so eager, some starting with their spotty beats and others making rainbow waves. We had circles, we had lines, we had swirls and we even had some happy faces.

We played the music a number of times until all the children had finished their painting. Some even did 2 or 3 paintings, which are now proudly displayed in our classroom.

What a wonderful art project that the children really enjoyed.

Love as always to our friends in South Africa and Finland!
Teacher Steph, the Tiger Cubs and the Puppies.

The 4 year old Puppies from Just Kids in Hanoi, Vietnam are making and sharing art with the artist Tigers at Your School in Espoo, Finland.  The 4 year old Tigers at Just Kids are making and sharing art with the 3-6 year olds at Oakdale Montessori School in Cape Town, South Africa.

Below are photographs from the workshop with the Tiger Cubs.

Below are pictures from the workshop with the Puppies.

Patterns to South Africa and Finland from Vietnam!

2016, 4 years old, 5 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, VietnamArlene TuckerComment

WOW! What an interesting project, we learned so much about ourselves and the world around us!

We started by looking around our classroom and noticing some repeated patterns around us. Particularly during the winter months, we can experiment with some interesting and wonderful patterns on our clothes.

Then we decided to go a little deeper, and we got some magnifying glasses and started looking at our skin. The wrinkles, the lines, the hairs. How interesting we are! What about our friends, what do their faces look like?? What happens when we pull funny faces?? when we raise our eyebrows??

Remembering what we saw, we got straight onto making our masks. we remembered the lines, the spots, the hairs and we made our masks with the patterns from our skin. But of course we had to add some colour! I hope our friends in Finland and our new friends in South Africa enjoy our masks!

Teacher Steph, the Tiger Cubs and the Puppies.

The 4 year old Puppies from Just Kids in Hanoi, Vietnam are making and sharing art with the artist Tigers at Your School in Espoo, Finland.  The 4 year old Tigers at Just Kids are making and sharing art with the 3-6 year olds at Oakdale Montessori School in Cape Town, South Africa.

Yay! The Tiger Cubs and Puppies received a package from Finland!

2016, 5 years old, Finland, VietnamArlene TuckerComment

Look what came today! The kids were very excited to check it all out! And were very intrigued with their inventions!

The 4 year old Puppies from Just Kids in Hanoi, Vietnam are making and sharing art with the artist Tigers at Your School in Espoo, Finland.  The 4 year old Tigers at Just Kids is starting a new friendship with the K1 artists at International School of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland. Exciting!!

Will they walk? or..drive?... or fly?!

2015, 4 years old, 5 years old, Finland, VietnamArlene TuckerComment

The kids, as usual were very eager to start creating their next project. We remembered the amazing things we have made already. First we made a friend, then we had to make a house for that friend, then we needed a place for the house... now, how will our friend get around?

Will they walk? or..drive?... or fly?!
We had many ideas of transport that our imaginary friends could travel by. Cars, trains, buses, trucks, rockets....
I asked the children, so, what makes our things special? whats crazy or different about your train?

"my train is a High speed train!"
"my boat has candy inside!"
"my plane is also a bird!"
"my boat is going to my grandma and grandpa's house!"

So many imaginative ideas, we all had a great time playing with shapes and using our creativity.

Dear friends of Finland, we hope you enjoy our art!

Teacher Steph, the Tiger Cubs and the Puppies.

The 4 year old Puppies from Just Kids in Hanoi, Vietnam are making and sharing art with the artist Tigers at Your School in Espoo, Finland.  The 4 year old Tigers at Just Kids is starting a new friendship with the K1 artists at International School of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland. Exciting!! 

Exploring Finland from Vietnam

2015, 4 years old, 5 years old, Collective Art, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, VietnamArlene TuckerComment

The children are so excited to begin the next project! They ask me everyday when we will make something new for our friends in Finland. So bringing this project to them brought on a lot of excitement in the classroom.

I started by drawing a person, and a house and then we started talking about what else we can draw. I was met with suggestions of trees, and a sun and many other things from our environment. We then started a discussion about Finland and what the environment looks like there.

I then showed them 2 videos of Finland. We saw the beautiful long summer days and the long, cold winter nights. We were mesmerised by the beautiful northern lights. "I want to travel to Finland!", "I want to LIVE in Finland!".

So then we discussed what we did see in the videos of the Finnish environment. I showed them their next project and they were very eager to begin. Many stars and lots of snow, hot suns and water for boats. I was getting a lot of comments about the environment they were drawing, so, most of the pictures have small descriptions for our new friends to read. We also had the world map up on display for the children to be reminded of. The kids loved finding some of the new countries they are learning about!

We stuck them all together and followed our environment line from end to end. What a beautiful product! 

We hope you enjoy our artwork. It comes with a lot of love!
Teacher Steph, the Tiger Cubs and Puppies.

Below are pictures of the Puppies's Shared Atmosphere collective painting. The 4 year old Puppies from Just Kids in Hanoi, Vietnam are making and sharing art with the artist Tigers at Your School in Espoo, Finland.

Below are pictures of the Tiger Cub's Shared Atmosphere collective painting project. The 4 year old Tiger Cubs at Just Kids are friends with the K1 artists at International School of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland. Exciting!! 

The artists from Hanoi create warm homes for their friends!

2015, 4 years old, 5 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, VietnamArlene TuckerComment

The kids were so excited to begin our second art project for our new friends in Finland!

We started by discussing our imaginary friend puppets that we made... and they were so so lovely...but there was one small problem. Where were they to live when they arrived in Finland?? Oh dear! We better get onto this straight away!

So we had a small discussion about what our friends house might look like and where they might live.. Little Ong said her imaginary friend lives in Finland, we had friends living in tall buildings, in cars, in airplanes and even underwater! Phuong Linh remembered her Mermaid friend, who of course, lives in a palace under the sea!

I showed them all a demonstration that I had made, they were all so excited that they were soon to be making their own! Then we went step by step over the project. Talking about tall buildings need bigger cuts up the paper, but small things only need a small cut.

Soon enough we were at our tables, and imaginations and creativity were flowing! we had tall buildings, houses, fish, minions, hearts, trees and more! They were so proud of their creations that they carried them around the classroom while they tidied up!

We are sure our friends in Finland are going to love them!

With love, Teacher Steph, the Tiger Cubs and the Puppies from Ha Noi, Vietnam.

Here are some artworks of the Tiger Cubs to K1 artists in Helsinki, Finland.

Here are some artworks of the Puppies to the Tigers in Espoo, Finland.

I want to be friends with the Puppies from Vietnam and their puppets!

2015, Dear You Workshop Leader, Dear You Art Workshops, FinlandArlene TuckerComment

I introduced the project to my students using a map and a world globe. I spent some time explaining to them about their country, Vietnam and my country, Australia. 

I told them that I have some new friends, who are the same age as them and they live in a country called Finland. I told them the name of the class and the name of their school. 

I told them that we are going to make a piece of art and then we are going to put it on an airplane to go to our friends in Finland and then we will also get some art from our friends in Finland! They were so excited!

Our first project was about imaginary friends. We discussed things that are real and things that are not real, that are in our heads. They are from our imagination. We spent some time describing our imaginary friends. Are they tall or short, big or small, do they have wings or maybe they can run very fast. 

I showed them a puppet that I had made. And explained to them that we can make a puppet that is like the friends we can imagine! 

I gave them a small paper bag each and a bunch of other paper and materials to create their puppets. And I left them to it! 

I set up the camera and my laptop and I also involved them in the photo taking process. They loved it. A few of them made friends from their imaginations, others made characters that they love. We even have a minion, and an Incredible Hulk! 

In the next few months we will be learning about our town. So I will take that opportunity to teach them about the post office when we send our artworks. 

The children are so excited to receive their puppets from Finland! 

We also look forward to our second project!!

Thanks a lot. 

Love from Vietnam, 
Steph, the puppies and the tiger cubs.

Below are pictures of the Puppies's Imagine Me puppet! 

The 4 year old Puppies from Just Kids in Hanoi, Vietnam are making and sharing art with the artist Tigers at Your School in Espoo, Finland.  The 4 year old Tigers at Just Kids is starting a new friendship with the K1 artists at International School of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland. Exciting!! 

Below are pictures of the Tiger's Imagine Me puppet! 

Painting has no boundaries

5 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, VietnamArlene TuckerComment

First we were all surprised, interested, curious and sometimes even scared of the paintings we saw: M. C. Escher, Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso and other surrealist painters, which made us think a little bit and also realize that painting has no boundaries. 

Then, we started painting to Jun Miyake's "Lillies of the Valley". The storm, No teacher, Windy day, The tree, Flowers, Birds of Vietnam or the galaxy are some of the paintings we created. Take a look and you will find much more. 

All the best from Hanoi,
The Little Mice

The Little Mice are exchanging with the Tigers in Espoo, Finland.  Check out what The Tigers did for their Musical Paintings here!

Mice wonder, "Candy can be black?!"

2014, Vietnam, 5 years old, FinlandArlene TuckerComment

Greetings once again from our Finnish Vietnamese group, Tigers and Mice enjoyed last week to the fullest knowing that Halloween was around the corner and they had a terrifying candy bag full of their favorite sweets. Here in Hanoi, we decorated our bags with different shapes and used our imagination and some music to decorate the candy bags, they turned out scary and colorful at the same time! 

Last Friday was our international show and tell circle, we shared candies, jellies, lollipops, marshmallows, and even pancakes and ice cream. We even had a girl that loved flowers so much that thought it would be nice to have them in her candy bag. 

The surprise came when our dear Tiger friends showed us a small piece of black candy... 
- What's that?? Chocolate? no wait chocolate is usually brown...
- Hahahaha, no its something we call liquorish.
- Is it black candy? Ewwwww!

Apparently some colors are not meant for candy if you ask our little mice! Black is definitely one of them... Hopefully they get to taste that Finnish delicatessen one day! 

See you next month Dear you Community and have a nice autumn were ever you are!

Xin chao!

Toti Álvarez

A Letter from Hanoi

Vietnam, Finland, Dear You Art WorkshopsArlene TuckerComment

Hello all, 

Last Friday was a very exciting day both here at Just Kids in Hanoi and at Your School in Espoo. After a couple of weeks of working on their artwork, the "Little Mice" had the chance to meet their new friends in Finland and show them their Self Portrait Puppets. They all talked about themselves, their names, age and where they live. Some were a bit shy at the beginning, but, in the end, they all had fun and got a chance to show their artwork.

Many also explained about their favorite things such as, swimming, ice-cream, ninjas, the color pink, blonde hair and even their own countries which they love so dearly. It was a great surprise to see the kids find out that they are not so different after all. They all like similar things. And despite the distance, they where able to spend Friday afternoon together in a fun "show and tell" circle.

We are looking forward to start our next project and to meet "The Tigers" again. We leave you here some of their artwork so you can get to know our artists better.

All the best from Hanoi,

Toti