Making it real from Mexico!

This project went great, kids were really excited about their houses popping out of the paper and they got magazines cut outs to accessorize and try to make it as similar as possible. 

Mrs. Vicke Benavides

The 6 year olds in Prepri C from Colegio San Patricio in Monterrey, Mexico are making and sharing art with the 4-6 year olds in KG2C from Collegiate American School in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Sensing through making art!

I started this project by explaining we were gonna have new art buddies in Dubai and I showed them how far away it is and some pictures of the city and school. 

They got really excited and the project matched our curriculum perfectly since we are learning about senses and habitats. 

I got them to experience different sounds so they could imagine how their creations would look like.

It was funny to hear them say 'I've got it! Mine will be a beach, cause that sound like a wave' and 'That sound gave the idea to make a fairy land, cause that sounds like magic'. 

I enjoyed watching them pay attention to what they were hearing, imagine and create unique pieces of art for our special friends in Dubai. 

xoxo,
Mrs. Vicke Benavides

The 6 year olds in Prepri C from Colegio San Patricio in Monterrey, Mexico are making and sharing art with the 4-6 year olds in KG2C from Collegiate American School in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

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

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.

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.

Home sweet home

This project went really well and it was a perfect for our curriculum since we were learning about how to describe our own homes. So we took this opportunity to make a drawing and a little message describing their homes to our friends abroad. 

They were really excited about letting everybody know how their houses looked. Also, when we covered the drawings with the black paint they got kind of nervous because they thought it was ruined. But then, when they draw the outside of their homes on top of the black paint their faces were priceless!! They were amazed to see that if they scratched the black paint, our friends in Nottingham could be able to see the inside of their homes!!

Saludos,
Mrs. 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.

Viva México

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.

Observations from Ms Senthamarai, a loving teacher

Our homes represent more than our financial assets; they have a deep and unique emotional meaning. Our earliest memories of home are often connected to our childhood. Layers of love (our 2nd mailing project with Mexico) helped us to cogitate about our homes, inside and outside. It was not a mere art experience that just involved paper, oil pastels and paint to enhance creativity but a reflective process that helped children to share their perspectives through illustration of what home meant to each one.

Personally, contemplating about my home gave me flash backs of both my wonderful and unpleasant experiences during my childhood days. I remember the time when my Dad discarded a wardrobe and placed it outside my house to be hurled out. My friend (my neighbour) of my age, used to join me to play in that wardrobe. We used to hide inside and pretend that it was our home. There was a discarded table outside too and we used to smuggle food from home (scramble eggs in a bowl), sit outdoors and party there. It was so fun. I was about three at that time and my memory is still vivid. I felt sad when I had to move out when I was four but there was a tinge of excitement of how my new house was going to be.

I believe that you have memories to share too.  These memories might help us to understand our children better.

At school, the moment we handed the photographs( of the homes) to the children, they got excited and started chatting with each other. It was spontaneous sharing amongst them (between friends) and 'meeting time' became obsolete.

When we finally settled down for discussion after about ten minutes, all the children had something to say about their home and they couldn't wait for their turns. Adu said that he might forget if he doesn't say it now.

Actually this is true. I realised that children are just like us...or at least i could reflect my teachers' meeting where sometimes I would be bubbling with ideas and just can't wait to relate my opinion.

Children were able to describe their homes in various ways E.glevel 1, fifth storey , tall building, high etc. A child reflected about a time where she cried at home ( a sad memory). Another reflected about what happened to her vase of roses when the water became dirty. Others related about how special their homes were.

Drawing about homes aided at sharpening observation skills of children. Many wished that their homes were colourful and made colourful illustrations with the oil pastels. Getting down to our children's level( height) while taking the photographs might have given us a view that might be familiar to children. A child couldn't recognise her home (from exterior) as she had not seen her home from the angle which her parent took the photograph from. It made me realise that children observe things from their level (physical, emotional or/and social) which may differ from our perception.

Anyway, we have finished our art project and sent them to Mexico. So what is next? Let's look onto the homes in other parts of the world. How are they different from ours and how similar are they? Is our environment changing constantly? Are there reconstructions going on?

Love,
Ms Senthamarai (Rachel)

Nursery 2A Core-Teacher
EtonHouse Bilingual Pre-school
Singapore

The Layers of Love, Dear You art project. This picture depicts the artist's home and their artistic representation of it from the outside.

The school of fish have a new home

We were delighted to receive a parcel from Mexico. The fishes found a comfortable place in our room, even made friends with our fishes!

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.

The artists in Mexico inspire creativity for their friends in South Africa!

The children opened the Dear You Art Project which we received all the way from Mexico today. The children loved it - thanks so much. We read the Hungry Caterpillar to the Toddlers today and we are off to the Library to get an Elmer the Elephant book to read to the older class on Monday 

Kind regards,
Oakdale Montessori

The 3-4 year old artists at Oakdale Montessori Preschool in Cape Town, South Africa are making and sharing art with the 4 year old artists at San Patricio Colegio in Monterrey, Mexico.

K2B class reads Elmer the Elephant Story!

Dear friends from K1,

I´m so excited hearing from you! 

Tomorrow I will read your letter to my students, they will get excited too!!

We really enjoyed making this project, my students got so happy when they first listened about the project, we did the same as you did, we found on the internet where Finland is on the map, they got surprise to see how far we are from each other, also we looked some pictures that we found on google of your school, they couldn't wait to sent the project to you!

We read Elmer the elephant story, they loved it, so our character is Elmer, you will receive many different elephants, we hope you like it too!! 

My student will be very happy to see all your projects, because guess what!! they love Frozen, Dora, Spiderman, Pokemon and all the characters you mention too!! 

When we made our projects we were celebrating Mexico´s Independence day! So if you can see in the pictures some of them were wearing Mexican clothes to commemorate this day.

Is nice to hear that you had a sunny day when you made the project, right now here in Monterrey is very hot!!

We sent a big hug to everybody!!

We are so excited keeping in touch with you!!

With lots of love,
Ms. Gaby, Ms. Kasandra and all K2B class!!

Elmer the Patchwork Elephant is a children's picture book series by the British author David McKee.

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

The Monkeys and their new friends in Mexico

Eyes wide open and with welcoming ears, the Monkeys were very excited to hear that their new Dear You friends are from Monterrey, Mexico! The 5 and 6 year olds from Your School and Colegio Bosques de las Cumbres will be making and sharing art!

The Monkeys had the great ideas to look in the geography book where Mexico was. They then figured out ALL the ways to get to our new friends from Finland. We could swim! Use a submarine! Fly a helicopter! Drive a boat!

After we had a good conversation about our favorite stories and the characters that live in the story we got to work! We first cut and organized our transparent silk paper and then collaged it onto sticky paper. This stickiness was at first a challenge, but the artists persevered and made beautiful artworks, as you can see!  We then tested our artworks against the light and then adding onto it with either more colored paper or markers.

The Monkeys like Butterfly, Ninja, Pokémon, Transformers, Chima Legos, Kung Fu Panda, Hedgehog stories. Do you recognize these stories? What stories do you like?

We can't wait to hear about your stories!

With love,
Arlene, Ben, Atefeh & The Monkeys

The 5-6 year old Monkeys from Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with the 5-6 year olds from Colegio Bosques de las Cumbres in Monterrey, Mexico.

The Tigers tell it all!

The Tigers from Your School in Espoo, Finland are bubbling in their seats about their new friends in Nursery A from Colegio San Patricio Cumbres in Monterrey, Mexico.  Both groups of artists are 4 years old.

In the first project, Lights, Camera, Action!, we made artworks of a character from our favorite story. This is our introductory piece of art to getting to know each other.  The sun was also a tool to create our art with.  Good thing the sun was shining bright in Finland!

The stories liked were Goldilocks, Batman, Tree Monster, My Little Pony, Spiderman, Batman, Shark Story, Magical Fairy, Superman, Ten Little Monkeys Jumping on a Bed, and Ninja.  Do you like these stories too?  Which characters do you like from the story?

We can't wait to meet you!

With love,
Arlene, Toti, Zeynab and The Tigers