K1 and their adventurous imaginary friends!

What fun K1 had making our Imagine Me puppets for our new friends in Vietnam!  We first looked at the map of the globe and came up with all different ways of how one could travel from Finland to Vietnam. Aashrit was so thoughtful and said we could spend one night in his home in India. India is a bit of a detour from Finland, but we can make it happen!

We then thought about what kind of companion we would like to go on our adventure with. This friend would then be developed into our Imagine Me puppet. From the looks of these artworks, K1 is a creative bunch who are ready an exciting journey! As you can see, collaging came quite naturally for them too.

J made a Micky Mouse bumblebee. 
KS likes to surprise his puppet by saying, "boo!". His friend likes to jump and drive a car.
A said, "this is my happy face!".
S's friend can read everything and do what people can't do like twist his legs, take his hair off and put it back on. Oh, and he has sharp teeth.
Dsri gave hers a purple dress.
W named his friend Mark. Mark likes to read ten-ten books, has a beard, glasses, hands, feet, and is good at running.
F's new friend, Sarah, is happy! She likes running around, jumping, skipping, and puzzles.
AA's friend is named Nosey. Nosey is good at connecting the phones and also playing with legos and cooking.
N's bumblebee transformer can transform fast cars and motorcycles!
M's is called No Name.
K's imaginary friend is a boy.
D created a baby.
R's has a happy face and her name is Happy.
AN's is called Baby Andreas and he likes playing with toys.

We can't wait to meet our new friends from Vietnam!

With love,
K1 artists, Arlene, & Lydia

K1, 4 year old artists from International School of Helsinki in Finland are making and exchanging art with the Tigers, a group of 4 year olds from Just Kids School in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Crazy Good Friends from Vienna coming your way!

The children had lot of fun with creating a good friend and they made really funny pictures!

A good friend should be lovely and funny. They want to do crazy things with a best friend. And it is very important to play with each other.  As you can see on the pictures, friends also have animals.

Hope, you are fine and wish you the best,
Simone Zobl and her group of super creative 2nd graders

The 7-8 year old artists from  Evangelischen Volksschule am Karlsplatz in Vienna, Austria are making and exchanging art with the 8 years from Mooste Põhikool in Mooste, Estonia!

Who wouldn't wanted to be art pals with the artists in Canada?!!

Kaarina Losey, the 6th grade teacher at Pioneer Park P.S. in Ontario, Canada shares with us how they approached 'Imagine Me' project. 

"I had talked briefly a day or two ahead of time, that we would be "art pals" with another class about the same age as us in Finland.  They were encouraged to bring in any materials that they wanted to use specifically. 

The morning of we talked a bit about imaginary friends, kind of following the outline in the project and I had this at the beginning of a short Google Slide show I had created a showing images of different styles and forms of puppet making (bags, sticks, tubes, etc.)."

The slideshow Kaarina created is quite impressive and an art piece in itself! Please have a look by clicking here.  Thank you, Kaarina!  I know that the 5th graders from The English School in Helsinki, Finland are very excited to meet their new friends!!

The creative buzz at Viertolan koulu

When the students from Maija's class at Viertolan koulu started to draw their ideas of"imaginary friends"  all of them were really quiet and concentrated! Ooh that silence meant creativity was busy! The students were thinking of their friends in Denmark and of how they will react when they get Finnish imaginary friends in the mail!

During the artistic process the students noticed that their idea was developing and changing while they were starting to build their puppets. "Game man" got hair to puppet and one of the puppets even turned out to be a mask and a puppet!

Eliisa

The 3rd Grade artists from Viertolan Koulu in, Vantaa, Finland are making and sharing art with the 3rd Grade artists from Korsholm Skole  in Hinnerup, Denmark.

Excitement is in the air!

I introduced the project to my students by showing them the Dear You website. My students were very excited and became even more excited when I told them exactly what their 1st project were.

One of my students said: "Wauw are we really going to mail it to another class, and will they mail to us as well?"

They were so motivated and couldn't wait to get started. I told them what kind of materials they could use and before I could look around my students were already creating their own little imaginary friend. Each and everyone with a unique expression. 

As a teacher it was so nice to watch my students "grow" during the process, and it was even more wonderful to watch them write what kind of superpowers their imaginary friends have.

Right now we are all waiting to receive mail from our new friends in Finland.

My Best,
Tatjana Knudsen

The 3rd Grade artists from Korsholm Skole in Hinnerup, Denmark are making and sharing art with the 3rd Grade artists from Viertolan Koulu in Vantaa, Finland.