Dear You Art Project

Mail Art + Pen Friends = Dear You Art Project

Oakdale Montessori School

The Universe and beyond!

2017, 3 years old, 4 years old, 5 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Iceland, South Africa, SingaporeArlene TuckerComment

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.

Fresh air makes for a creative environment!

2016, Dear You Art Workshops, Mexico, Pre-School, South AfricaArlene TuckerComment

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.

From summer time in South Africa to sunny Mexico!

2016, 3 years old, 5 years old, 6 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Mexico, South AfricaArlene TuckerComment

Hello Mexico,

It is summer now here in South Africa, so the Toddler class really enjoyed this project. Our School is situated in a suburb called Oakdale and all around us are Oak leaves. So we decided to focus on Oak leaves and the summer flowers that are brightly coloured. Hope you enjoy our Art –

Love,
Oakdale Toddlers

The Toddler class, artists 18 months to 3 years old, from Oakdale Preschool in Cape Town, South Africa are making and sharing art with Nursery C from Colegio San Patricio in Monterrey, Mexico.

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

2016, 4 years old, 3 years old, Mexico, South AfricaArlene TuckerComment

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.

We are all together!

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

Lamees, the teacher in the classroom introduced the project during circle time while discussing the weather. We stopped and heard a bit of wind. I asked if they could hear it. We described it as the wind was crashing against the classroom. I told the children instead of using paint brushes, what else can they find in the garden and the first thing they went to was the trees. The colors of the week are green and yellow so we kept in with our theme. 

The children were asked to go out into the school grounds and have a look to see what materials they could use / find which are different to what we would normally use in the classroom environment. The children looked around and
brought back pegs, sticks, leaves, twigs from around the school property and instead of using normal powder paint they decided to use food colouring.

The children loved the new and different way of painting and had a ball with the different leaves and colors.  

My Toddler Class this morning decided that they also wanted to be included in the latest art project, so we let them experiment.  The children in the Toddler class range in age from 19 months to 3 years of age.

Regards,
Tayla 

The 3-6 year olds at Oakdale Montessori School in Cape Town, South Africa are making and sharing art with the Tigers, 4-5 year olds from Just Kids School in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Patterns from South Africa!

2016, 4 years old, 5 years old, 6 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, South AfricaArlene TuckerComment

All the children were introduced to the theme during circle time. My teachers explained to the children that our skin is made up of cells and that our finger prints are all different. The children were asked to describe what they can see on their skin and fingers. Some children mentioned that we have holes in our skin were the hair comes out, others mentioned that we have lines and creases on our hands and feet. We told the children that their hands and feet are unique and the children compared their hands with the person sitting next to them in the circle.

The teachers explained that we are going to decorate a mask using the patterns we see on our skin, hands and feet. The children decided to use ear buds, sponges and the back of paint brushes to try and make up the patterns. We used food colouring/dye for this exercise not paint.

On the back of each mask is the childrens name, date of birth and Pink for girls and Blue for boys.

Lots of fun was had by staff and the children – we cannot wait to start the next project. The parents have been informed about the initiative in our weekly newsletter and are very supportive of this fantastic idea.

Kind Regards,
Rebecca

The 3-6 year olds at Oakdale Montessori School in Cape Town, South Africa are making and sharing art with the Tigers, 4-5 year olds from Just Kids School in Hanoi, Vietnam.