Super Imaginary Me Puppets from the Smart Squirrels !

We are very excited to join in DearYou Project as the teachers, so do children :). 

When the teachers introduced the Project from the website of “DearYou” Project, they got excited and wanted to start quickly. They were happy to create their imaginary friend and talk about the features and the abilities they have. They used art materials and their own drawing to finish their work.

We hope you’ll like the products as much as we do.

Warm regards,
Smart Squirrels

To see more of The Smart Squirrels Imagine Me puppets, please click here.

The Smart Squirrels are a group of 4 year olds from Açı Preschool in Istanbul, Turkey. They are making and sharing art with the 4 year olds from Kita Felix and Friends in Berlin, Germany.

From Texas to England, here we go!

Kathleen Finan and her 2nd graders at  Amy Parks Heath Elementary School in Heath, Texas are ready to snail mail their first exchange of Dear You artworks to their new friends at Sneinton St Stephen's C of E Primary School in Nottingham, UK.

Their Self Portrait Puppets are full of personality!

Pigeons have arrived in Denmark!

Today at Randlevskolen in Denmark we received this wonderful package from Finland. We look very much forward to show it to my students.

- Tatjana Knudsen

Great questions from the artists at The International School of Vantaa!

The artists at The International School of Vantaa in Finland are a very welcoming group of 4th Graders!  As I was approaching the school I saw a few kids playing outside and they all ran to me asking if I was Arlene.  Wow!  What a warm greeting for my first time at this school :)

They then took me upstairs to the class where Mary Banda, their teacher, and the rest of the artists were waiting to start creating their first project to be exchanged with Nuuk Internationale Friskole in Greenland.

Mary had the great idea to Google Map where Greenland is in relation to Finland.  This prompted many questions!

What language do they speak in Greenland?

What is the weather like?

How come there is so much snow when it is called Greenland?

Maybe our new friends in Nuuk could help us answer some of these questions.

Here are the Self Portrait Puppets they made.  I like how some artists decided to turn this into an interactive game or took the time create texture with different materials.  They look forward to hearing from their new friends in Greenland!

Smiling faces from Vienna, Austria :)

Simone Zobl, the 1st grade educator at Evangelischen Volksschule am Karlsplatz in Vienna, Austria, has started Dear You with us this September!

For the Self Portrait Puppet project, Simone said, "I only told the children, that they should paint themselves for our partner class. They cut out the puppet and made it all on their own. And they really had a lot of fun! :)"

I am sure everybody is excited to receive the puppets from their new Czech friends!

Belgium + USA = Happy Artists

The International School of Antwerp in Antwerp, Belgium and Moonstone Preschool in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the USA have started their new friendship this fall.

Thank you to their teachers, Naomi Kite, Nebadon Adams, and Michelle Mullally for being such warmhearted spirits that encourage these artists to express themselves so beautifully!

I think these pictures of the Happy Artists in action says it all :)

Cutting and creating away in Antwerp, Belgium!

Artists at the International School of Antwerp in action!

The whole class ready to be posted to their friends in Philadelphia, PA.

Moonstone Preschooler Helen is thinking about what she wants to tell her new friend in Belgium.

The Art of Choosing with The English School

The Fifth Graders at The English School of Helsinki collaged whimsical portraits of themselves for our new friends in the Czech Republic. We thought about the art of choosing. What do the things we decide to show and hide tell about ourselves?

We took inspiration from Johnny Amore's humorous collage characters. The young artists cut out textures, images and words from magazines to form a collage representing themselves. It was wonderful to hear laughter around the classroom when the young artists discovered new and unexpected ways to mix and match the clippings out of magazines to form hilarious combinations.

- Nooralotta Ikonen
http://laiskia.blogspot.fi
Dear You Workshop Leader

A Letter from Hanoi

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

The Tigers are Rrrrready for their Ipevo Skype session with Just Kids in Hanoi!

I learned so much about the Tigers today!  I learned that Aleksi likes to play chess because he drew a chess piece on his self-portrait puppet.  I also learned that Sofi loves the color purple because she gave herself a purple dress.  Now their new friends in Hanoi, Vietnam will also get to know them!

Before we got ourselves covered with glue and markers I first showed them different portraits of artists such as Frida Kahlo and Pablo Picasso.  This got our mind in the frame of choosing what we would like to tell our new friends about ourselves.

Nachu said, "This puppet is the real me and not the real me!"  

On Friday they will have their first Dear You Skype session using the Ipevo document camera and conference station.  Exciting! 

The Monkeys make Self-Portrait Puppets for their friends in Greenland

I had a great Dear You art workshop today with the Monkeys at Your School in Espoo, Finland!  First, I introduced the art of silhouettes and all the different ways we can incorporate that technique into our own practice.  We looked at classic Indonesian puppetry and contemporary artists such as Kara Walker, who use silhouettes in their artistry.

After that we jumped right into the creative process and made outlines of our bodies for our own puppets.  To incorporate a collective element into this project our friends in Greenland will write their name on our puppet.  It was fun choosing how and what we want to tell our friends for their first impression.

We can't wait to see meet our new friends from Nuuk, Greenland!

Tatjana Knudsen and her 3rd graders in Denmark are ready for Dear You!

Here are some pictures of Tatjana Knudsen's 3rd graders working on their puppets. Tatjana said, "They are just so excited and can't wait to see what they get from their friends in Finland."

Tatjana is the art teacher at Randlevskolen in Odder, Denmark.  They are sharing and making art with the artists at The English School in Helsinki, Finland.