Dear You Art Project

Mail Art + Pen Friends = Dear You Art Project

South Africa

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.

From Circle Time to Colour Time

2016, 3 years old, 4 years old, 5 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Mexico, South AfricaArlene TuckerComment

The Toddlers at Oakdale Montessori followed with the lights, camera, action theme. We asked the Toddlers to colour in 2 shapes ad Triangle and a Square with this project. As the theme was about inside of a house. We decided to make houses and decorate the outsides. The Toddlers coloured in with wax crayons and the painted the square for the house and the triangle for the roof. As the Toddlers are so small we did as staff help them with the windows and the smoke.

The Early Childhood class gathered together during Circle time and spoke to them about how we received Elma the Elephant and this time we will be sending back art in a shape. The children chose a square to work with. I think that fun was had by all watching the colours come up through the paint work.

Thanks so much!

Regards,
Rebecca

The Toddler and Pre-school groups from Oakdale Montessori Preschool in Cape Town, South Africa are making and sharing art with Nursery C and Kinder C classes 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.

South African artists swim their way to Mexico with Nemo!

2016, 3 years old, 4 years old, 5 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Mexico, Pre-School, South AfricaArlene TuckerComment

We introduced the Dear Art project to the Toddlers during circle and explained that our art is going to another school very far away in Mexico. In a few weeks’ time we will get the Mexico’s school art projects sent to us. Img0087 is the Toddler teacher showing the children where the other school is in relation to our school. The Toddlers used a fish theme as the average age in the class is only 2.5 years. We explained the theme as light, camera, action we asked the class what the favourite movie was and the children all said “finding Nemo”. As the class is very young we asked the class to colour in and decorate the fish to what they wanted it to look like. We asked them to close their eyes and think of their favourite colours. Each picture is the Children's own interruption of Nemo.

I introduced the theme to the older class also during circle time and also spoke about Light, Camera, Action. The children then decided to take shapes and use laminating pouches to colour in the shape in between the sleeve and then we laminated them to represent stained glass windows 

Kind Regards,
Rebecca

The Toddler and Pre-school groups from Oakdale Preschool in Cape Town, South Africa are making and sharing art with Nursery C and Kinder C classes from Colegio San Patricio in Monterrey, Mexico.

Enjoy your meal : )

2016, 4 years old, 5 years old, Collective Art, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, Pre-School, South Africa, VietnamArlene TuckerComment

What a creative and colourful project this was!

We have learnt so much about ourselves and our friends across the oceans by doing this project. The children were so excited to show off all of their new geographical knowledge. We have marked all of the places we know on a large map, so now we can easily find them. 

We remembered all of the projects in this series so far, our masks decorated with skin patterns, our rhythmic paintings using so many painting objects and our food book. Now it's time to combine them all! We started a discussion about our dinner table, and what we need to put on it. Plates, knives and forks, chopsticks? What about under them? We need a beautiful table cloth or placemats. We gathered a range of objects in different shapes and sizes. We found cd's and blocks, triangles and rectangles and squares. 

We started by choosing one shape and we made some traces with it. Then we chose a second shape and then a third if we wanted. We watched how the lines overlapped and it made different shapes on the inside.

When we were finished it was time to colour! We coloured each section with a different colour. How amazing and bright they looked with all these beautiful colours.

When we were finished we all looked at each other's and tried to put them together to make one big table cloth, but we decided that it was much more exciting if each guest at our international dinner table had a different piece of art under their plate.

The children have absolutely loved being a part of the Dear You project. Now as the little Tiger cubs and Puppies graduate their last year in kindergarten, they enter big school with knew knowledge of cultures, geography, creativity and wonder. 

Thank you for letting us be a part of this project and we hope to continue work with you in years to come.

Lots of love to our friends overseas,
Teacher Steph, the Tiger Cubs and the Puppies.

Below are pictures from the workshop with the Puppies.

Below are pictures from the workshop with the Tiger Cubs.

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

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.