"My friends are trading together"

What a day it was with The Explorers! When I told them that the idea today was to come up with a unanimous title for our collective book and to weave using recycled materials, everybody was so open minded to try new art techniques and to work together!  As always, I am deeply impressed with these young artists with how respectful and imaginative they are!

So how are ALL of us going to come up with one title when we ALL have such amazing ideas?  The Explorers came up with excellent suggestions such as, 1. to mix the ideas together, 2. we can vote, 3. we can take turns.  Being the kind and diplomatic group, The Explorers combined these methods and off we went with spouting out title ideas!

The top three titles were:
- Together my friend trading
- My friends are trading together
- Friends trading places

And the winner is, "My friends are trading together"!  This title really encapsulates Dear You art project and the process of exchange. Amazing how these 5 year old artists understand so clearly the heart of friendship, sharing, and creativity!

This was the first time The Explorers tried weaving and they all did a fantastic job as they took their time, asked for help when needed, and persevered when faced with a challenge.  Everybody could choose what they would like their base or loom to be.  They then played with colors, patterns, and happy coincidences that arose when weaving images together.

We hope our friends in China like our artwork!

With love,
Arlene & The Explorers

The Explorers, 5-6 year olds, from International School of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing with the artists aged 6 years old at Shenzhen Primary School in Shenzhen, China.

Is it cold in China? Probably not as cold as it is in Finland!

The thing about questions is that once you get started you can't stop! That's how it was with The Explorers when I was with them making The Art of Asking Questions project. When I arrived to ISH we had such a lovely time looking at the artworks received from the artists in China. That's actually when our inquisitive minds started going!  We made personal connections to the self-portraits and then wanted to naturally know more about WHO these amazing artists are!

As a class, we came up with a loooong list of questions.  We then thought about different ways of depicting these questions and got to the making art bit as soon as possible!

We had a great conversation about why we chose to draw that picture for our question:

What do you like? "It's Darth Vader and Lollipops. I liked making it."

What candy do you like? "This is me and my big brother. He eats candy, but I don't any more. It's not good for my teeth."

What story do you like? "It's the story of Finland. That's me :) The house is from ISH"

What movie do you like? "My favorite is the Lion King.

Is your school fun? "I have fun at ISH"

What do you celebrate? "I'm celebrating Happy Birthday for my baby brother.

We like your art!!

My best,
Arlene & The Explorers

The Explorers, 5-6 year olds, from International School of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing with the artists aged 6 years old at Shenzhen Primary School in Shenzhen, China.