We are so very happy to have received artwork from Taizhou Phoenix Primary School in Taizhou, China. The school’s art teacher Ms Liu Chunjuan has provided a lovely atmosphere to be creative as you can see in these photos. Children from Grade 1-3 participated in the three activities "A Map at the palm of your hand"," Sound travels"," Reinventing Trash". They used different materials and individual imagination to express their inner world.
Taizhou Pheonix Primary School
One idea leads to another
2018, 2nd Grade, 8 years olds, 9 years old, China, FinlandComment
As the students in Taizhou listened to their friend's soundscapes their ideas started to grow. Here you can see how each mind map is unique and how we all interpret sounds, images, and emotions in different ways. Loving the translation process in these artworks!
Teachers Miss Wu Juehua and Lisa did an amazing job encouraging their students to be as creative, open, and experimental as they can be. Thank you!
The artists in Grade 2 (8-9 years old) at Taizhou Pheonix Primary School in Jiangsu, China are making and sharing art with the artists at Linguajoy (7-10 years old) in Helsinki, Finland.
Taizhou Pheonix Primary School translate their environment!
2018, China, FinlandCommentThe children in our class enjoy sharing things with me very much. This is no exception, the school take three days off for the Chinese traditional Qingming festival (清明节). Qingming festival, it is spring back to the earth, people sweep the tomb, a young and old in the middle reaches of the nature, home conveniently fold a few branches and leaves bud of willow branches on his head, happy.
Also, some people specially during the Qingming festival to nature to enjoy and appreciate the vibrant spring scenery, watching the spring scenery. We Taizhou area in many places and dragon boat racing, dragon dance and other traditional activities, so most of the children choose and their parents to visit, observe all kinds of activities.
After returning from the holiday, many students shared their photos with the class. We sat together and talked to each other about the fun of the holiday and the beauty we enjoyed. Then find a quiet environment to record your feelings, easy to share with you.
Sincerely,
Miss Wu Juehua
The artists in Grade 2 (8-9 years old) at Taizhou Pheonix Primary School in Jiangsu, China are making and sharing art with the artists at Linguajoy (7-10 years old) in Helsinki, Finland.
油菜花. Rapeseed Flowers.
I See You! Swedish students stop to take a closer look.
China, Finland, 7 years old, 8 years olds, 9 years old, 10 years oldComment
In a small classroom in Finland students stop, take a moment, and visually explore photos of kids attending school in China. They see, if only for a few moments the visual characteristics and features of the child in the photograph. Using tracing paper the students traced the figures out of the photographs and onto a piece of paper. They added color to the students along with their own artistic touches. Throughout the process the students were encouraged to look closely at the photographs and asked; What did they see? Who is in the picture? What can you learn about them, what is the image telling you? Once the drawing were completed I transcribed short letters from each artist to the child in the photograph. They explained short things about themselves such as their favorite foods and hobbies.
Now they eagerly await for the exchanging of artworks.
Sincerely,
Rachel Kangas
The artists in Grade 2 (8-9 years old) at Taizhou Pheonix Primary School in Jiangsu, China are making and sharing art with the artists at Linguajoy (7-10 years old) in Helsinki, Finland.
The artists in China challenge realism!
10 years old, 2018, 3rd Grade, China, FinlandComment
The creation has sought the views of the children. They thought that their own photos can be printed out and then they were able to discuss their appearance characteristics. They also could talk about their good characters, talented things even favourite clothes, habitual actions, preferred colors and so on.
There are two kinds of creation, one is to draw themselves, the other is to draw among each other.
Some children believed it can be realistic. They stuck photos on the window and keep papers above them to describe in detail. Some children could also exaggerate some features of their own such as a round face more round, big eyes bigger, even can express themselves with decorative techniques besides expressing some features they don’t have but want to own. For example, short hair girl painted her wanted long hair, lively become calm. In the process of painting, they devoted themselves to draw a variety of styles of themselves.
King regards,
Teacher Lisa and Miss Wu Juehua
The artists in Grade 3 (9-10 years old) at Taizhou Pheonix Primary School in Jiangsu, China are making and sharing art with the artists at Linguajoy (7-9 years old) in Helsinki, Finland.
Taking time to explore
10 years old, 2018, 7 years old, 8 years olds, 9 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland3 Comments
To start the Dear You project the students and I sat down around a table and reviewed the photos sent to us from our new friends in China. With each picture we took time to visually explore what was taking place. Was it a boy or girl? How old did they appear? Where was the photo taken? We explored what sort of information could we gather from elements presented to us in the photo?
Following this activity we completed an journaling exercise where the students described things about themselves that they felt were important to share with their new friends. Then we completed the session by taking our self portraits.
Alexandra said: I like candy. I like to dance. My favorite food is pea soup.
I am Amos. I like school. I play my PS4. I have a big brother. I like pizza. I like candy.
I am Ebba. I like English club. I play football. I have a mom.
Felix said: I am 8 years old. I like candy. I play Minecraft.
Lucus said: I am short. I like my friend Benjamin. I play football. I have a little sister.
I am Maxim. I like Samuel & Benjamin. I do Ty-boxing. I have a dog.
Oskar said: I like playing my phone. I like candy. I am 7 years old. I play the guitar.
Sophia said: I also like to laugh. I like to play pretend mommy and daddy. I like my mom. My favorite food is spaghetti and I love bread. I like hotdogs and I like friends.
Thank you!
Sincerely,
Rachel Kangas
The artists in Grade 2 (8-9 years old) at Taizhou Pheonix Primary School in Jiangsu, China are making and sharing art with the artists at Linguajoy (7-10 years old) in Helsinki, Finland.
I think we will make good friends!
2018, 3rd Grade, China, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland5 Comments
When I explained to the kids what the event meant and what to do, they were very positive and found out how many great pictures they had and asked friends to pick out the ones they like.
Next, the kids told stories about the photos. Then, the kids talked about their photos one after one. They made self-introductions and wrote them down, they expect to be new friends with the kids in Finland.
King regards,
Teacher Lisa and Miss Wu Juehua
The artists in Grade 3 (9-10 years old) at Taizhou Pheonix Primary School in Jiangsu, China are making and sharing art with the artists at Linguajoy (7-9 years old) in Helsinki, Finland.
Storytelling time in Taizhou!
2017, 8 years olds, 9 years old, China, Collective Art, United KingdomComment
For the last session of this ‘Inspiring Stories ’project , we first divided the whole class into groups, then let each group choose a British children's work. According to the content of the works, we encourage students to start imagination, then create stories and then write down the scripts. At last, the children shoot the script into audio or video works with the help of teachers or parents during the spare time.
The event was a new experience for the children, and they were excited and happy.
Best wishes,
Lisa
The artists in Grade 3 (9-10 years old) at Taizhou Pheonix Primary School in Jiangsu, China are making and sharing art with the artists in Class 4 (8-9 years old) at Sneinton C of E St Stephens Primary School in Nottingham, England Both groups are aged 8-9 years old.
The friends in China and the UK are "Hand in Hand"
2017, 3rd Grade, China, Dear You Art Workshops, United KingdomComment
In this activity, the teacher first talked about the form of weaving. Then the teacher presented some pictures of weaving artworks, which made children understand it well. Next, teachers and children had a discussion on how to do weaving artworks. Children said there were two pieces of paper that were horizontal and vertical. They could be weaved with one press and one pick. The art teacher Miss Liu Chunjuan and her students demonstrated at the front of the classroom, and students worked in groups to make it out. Finally, the teacher encouraged the children to give a name of the book. Some students said, we want to express our friendship between the two schools, so he took the name of ‘ Hand in Hand’.
Best wishes,
Lisa
The artists in Grade 3 (9-10 years old) at Taizhou Pheonix Primary School in Jiangsu, China are making and sharing art with the artists in Class 4 (8-9 years old) at Sneinton C of E St Stephens Primary School in Nottingham, England Both groups are aged 8-9 years old.
Exploring and making with the artists in China!
2017, 3rd Grade, China, United Kingdom24 Comments
Hey! Dear You!
In order to understand the foreign pen pals well, the headteacher Miss Diao Yangyang led the students to visit the website of Sneinton C of E Primary School before doing the second project. They also visited the website of Dear You for the first time art works and creative process of the British children.
The children are very excited when they read the news. They had a lot of questions to ask their foreign friends, such as: What do they learn at school? How to have classes? Do they have homework? What do they usually eat for lunch? What animals are in their city?
After that, the children began to discuss in groups, thinking how to express their questions in art form. Some children thought to make greeting cards, hiding the question paper in them; some wanted to write down the questions with brush pens; some wanted to use the form of the combination of paper-cut and painting ; some chose to write the questions on the origami etc.
After discussing and defining their own artistic expression, the children came home and turned their problems into a piece of art with appropriate materials.
Best wishes,
Lisa
The artists in Grade 3 (9-10 years old) at Taizhou Pheonix Primary School in Jiangsu, China are making and sharing art with the artists in Class 4 (8-9 years old) at Sneinton C of E St Stephens Primary School in Nottingham, England Both groups are aged 8-9 years old.
Our first mail art exchange!
2017, 10 years old, 3rd Grade, 9 years old, China, United Kingdom1 Comment
Hey! Dear You!
We are from Taizhou Phoenix Primary School of Jiangsu, China. We are the children of Class 3 Grade 3 who are aged from 9 to 10. We just start to learn English recently, so we can not write well in English. But we can express ourselves by drawing or doing art works. You can guess how I look like and how I feel by our pictures.
On Sept. 26, the art teacher Miss Liu Chunjuan took us to the art room. Firstly, She drew a big body on the blackboard and let us discuss what makes humans unique to each other. For example, the DNA, the fingerprints, personalities etc. The children shared ideas and wrote many key words on it. Secondly, she asked us to draw a self-portrait . We took many pictures about them. Thirdly, Miss Liu showed us how to cover the parer with graphite, and we tried. Wow! The paper turned dark soon and so did our hands. Everybody was happy! Then, we took another different colour of paper to make a transfer drawing. Some of the kids used fingers , some used feet, some used hands, some used arms. All of us laughed happily. At last, we wrote ours name on them to let foreign friends know who I am.
Children’s comments :
1. I won’t forget this drawing lesson one hundred years later.
2. It is the first time for me to make pictures with fingers. That looks great!
3. I want to try again to make it more clearly.
4. I know that everybody is unique .
Teachers reflection:
1. The children enjoyed the process of doing the art work. They are eager to be my little teacher to help classmates to finish. They become more helpful.
2. The open question ‘what is unique?’ expand the children’s thinking . Everybody learns to share.
3. We are eager to see the art works from the UK. Exchanging ideas makes human get close.
Thank Dear You for linking us together!
Sincerely,
Miss Liu Chunjuan
The artists in Grade 3 (9-10 years old) at Taizhou Pheonix Primary School in Jiangsu, China are making and sharing art with the artists in Class 4 (8-9 years old) at Sneinton C of E St Stephens Primary School in Nottingham, England Both groups are aged 8-9 years old.
