Dear You Art Project

Mail Art + Pen Friends = Dear You Art Project

Received art

K1 have open arms for their friends in Mexico!

2016, 4 years old, 5 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, MexicoArlene TuckerComment

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.

Feeling happy in Singapore : )

2016, 3 years old, 4 years old, Mexico, SingaporeArlene TuckerComment

We finally got mail from Mexico! Our children were so amazed to see a big envelope in each of their private letter box. Upon admiring the materials used to paste within the boundaries on the crafts, some of our children shared their prior knowledge about the story The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and did sequencing of the days of the week and matching the food crafts accordingly. 

Regards,
Nurul'Ain

Nurul'Ain, N2B teacher, and her 3 and 4 year old artists from EtonHouse Bilingual Pre-School in Singapore are making and sharing art with Marianna Diaz and her 4 year old artists in Nursery B at Colegio San Patricio in Monterrey, Mexico. 

The school of fish have a new home

2016, Germany, MexicoArlene TuckerComment
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!

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.