Venturing with the artists at Viertola School!

For our 4th meeting in Viertola School, in Vantaa I had prepared a slideshow of different modes of transportation. The images inspired us to think how these machines work, and we discussed ways to travel to places, for humans and fish, birds, and animals. Looking at inventions such as child seat on a bicycle or a sleeper train, we talked about journeys we take on our own and with a friend. 

The artists talked about their own travel experiences. Some travel home to a different country almost every weekend! 

Reflecting on the collective piece of art the artists created

Recycled materials worked well, I was very pleased to see students sharing materials with one another and creatively approach not only the design of the machine, but also of the environment around it. One artist even changed the “Air, Land, Water” to “Past, Present and Future”, to suit his time-travelling apparatus. 

As the artists were finishing their work, we gathered around the table in a Dear You corner that Kirsti had created, displaying artworks and letters from our friends, and talked about the scratch art homes that had just arrived from Canada. We had some exciting discussions in small groups, trying to guess where each of our friends’ character lives. Thank you for sharing art with us, teacher Dance and your wonderful students! 

Artworks from their friends at Ryerson PS in Ontario, Canada

Anastasia, Kirsti, and 4A class of Viertola School

The 4th graders from Viertolan Koulu in Vantaa, Finland are making and sharing with the 4th graders from Ryerson PS in Ontario, Canada.

Looking at Vincent van Gogh's and William Turner's works for inspiration!

We began the 90min meeting with 4A class in Viertolan Koulu in Vantaa, Finland by reading out reflection and feedback from teacher Dance and her wonderful students in Ontario. I feel that it is always important for the young artists to know that their art appreciated and valued. 

Preparing for the worksop, I found the suggestion to demonstrate artworks depicting different kinds of environments to the children very helpful. Together we looked at works by Vincent van Gogh and William Turner, and discussed how these artists captured their worlds. We talked about how light, colour and brushstrokes can tell us about the weather, time of the day and the season in the landscape. 

Here is our work-in-progress, both side of the circles before they were cut into spirals. A combination of pencils and markers encouraged the creation of some very vibrant worlds. However, some of the characters live in outer space, and day there is not much different to night. (A little bit like Finland right now) 

Thank you to Kirsti and Viertolan Koulu for welcoming me again. Can't wait to see the art we get from Ontario!

- Anastasia Artemeva

The 4th graders from Viertolan Koulu in Vantaa, Finland are making and sharing with the 4th graders from Ryerson PS in Ontario, Canada.

Flying homes on their way from Finland to Canada!

Our homes are on their way to Canada!

Young artists from 4A in Viertolan Koulu, Vantaa, Finland, are a real team of independent thinkers! Each artist created their own, unique home for their character.  In some homes there were pets and flowers, a little bit like in the artists' own houses, while others were evidently created especially for Pockemons, horses and superheroes. Because of the small size of the paper, the secret houses look like postcards with a coded message. 

Some of the young artists, encouraged by their wonderful class teacher Kirsti, had prepared personal letters addressed to their new friends. This is already the second letter they have written to the artists in Ryerson Public School in Cambridge, Canada. It is very inspiring to see different ways of communication that we can use to connect with each other.

Anastasia Artemeva

The 4th graders from Viertolan Koulu in Vantaa, Finland are making and sharing art with the 4th graders from Ryerson Public School in Cambridge, Canada.

VK 4A Lights, Camera, Action!

Characters and superheroes from young artists in 4A class in Viertolan Koulu in Vantaa, Finland are on their way to Ryerson Public School in Cambridge, Canada! 

We used oil pastels and overhead projector sheets to create the stain glass effect. At the end of the workshop the kids handed me a bunch of letters that they had written to their new friends personally. It was wonderful to see that Dear You project continues outside of our 90 minutes sessions. Together we wrote the names of the young artists and names of their characters next to each other, so it will easier to match artworks from this and following projects as the Autumn session continues.

The pace and the structure of our meetings are always important to me. As we use English as the main language of communication, with the help of the class teacher translating to Finnish and other languages, the initial discussion and the explanation of the project at the beginning always takes some time. This is enjoyable time for everyone, to think and imagine together. 

Then I make sure everyone has their materials ready, and for the second half of the session, the young artists just work independently, at their own pace, asking question if needed. My favourite part is when we have 5 minutes left, and everyone brings their works to the table at the front of the class, to admire each others' creations before placing them in one big envelope. 

Looking forward to our next meeting!

Anastasia Artemeva

The 4th graders from Viertolan Koulu in Vantaa, Finland are making and sharing art with the 4th graders from Ryerson Public School in Cambridge, Canada.

Hyvää ruokahalua! Enjoy your meal!!

So turns out when we are eating, the thing we want to see the most is food. Second favourites include looking out the window, listening to the birds singing. We enjoy having a meal in the company of our family and pets.  On the other hand, we don’t so much like sharing our food with ants.

My last sessions with 1 A and 1 B classes very really fun! We made two very different, but beautiful ornamented table cloths.  The artists drew their own patterns on graph paper, and then we all spent some time together joining our creations to make one large picnic blanket.  When we finished the artwork, we took some time to write a letter to our friends, saying that we wish they enjoy their meal. Hyvää ruokahalua!! 

Anastasia Artemeva

The 1A artists at Viertolan Koulu in Vantaa, Finland are making and sharing art with the artists at Кепа школу (Kepa School) in Karelia, Russia. The 1B artists at Viertolan Koulu in Vantaa, Finland are making and sharing art with the artists at Sheppard Public School in Ontario, Canada.

Sounding our Little Forest "Pikku Metsa"

Sounding our surrounding meeting went real well, thanks to classroom teachers Titta and Anne, who had taken their young artists for an explorative walk in a little forest literally called Little Forest "Pikku Metsa" beforehand. From the walk, the kids brought natural materials for making brushes, as well as many interesting sounds to paint. We chatted about the difference in soundscapes in the school and outside in nature, as well as about composing music, as we painted our songs.

A lot of time was deliberately left for reflection and performance of the scores. To get into the musical mood, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star was performed skillfully by both groups - in Finnish and in English languages.

In 1A we each described what we heard and how we decided to combine and express these sounds on paper. In 1B we sang, hummed, tapped and whistled our own and each other's paintings.

It was lovely to hear, a teacher noted, how now, after 3 meeting, the kids already started to respond to me in English (Viertola is a Finnish - speaking school, but I speak English to the kids). Nice to see how Dear You can be not only a way to make art and meet new friends, but to learn a language also. 

Anastasia Artemeva

Below are photos from Titta's 1A class:

Below are photos from Anne's 1B class:

The 1A artists at Viertolan Koulu in Vantaa, Finland are making and sharing art with the artists at Кепа школу (Kepa School) in Karelia, Russia. The 1B artists at Viertolan Koulu in Vantaa, Finland are making and sharing art with the artists at Sheppard Public School in Ontario, Canada.

Thinking about 'What am I?' with Viertolan Koulu

I have visited Viertolan Koulu to create What Am I? books with two first-grade classes. The main idea was to talk about what our food can tell about us and our environment. During the lively discussion with no right or wrong answers, we thought about what food is accessible to us directly – from the apple tree in our neighbours’ garden, to the carrots our grannies grow in their cottages in Northern Finland. We listed examples of food that comes from here, and discussed whether the lemon growing in a pot on the windowsill can be considered local food.

In order to prepare the art materials for the book, the kids had been asked to bring their own cardboard from home. Looking at the items they brought, we all laughed to see it was mostly cereal boxes – the food that found its way into our diet within just the last decade or two.

I felt it was more exciting to ask questions to discuss the subject of an artwork, and explain the technique very carefully, rather than only give a solid description of what the final piece should look like. At the end, we made an array of beautiful accordion books, asking our friends to guess our favourite dishes such as macaroni bake, bananas, pizza and chocolate. 

Anastasia Artemeva

The 1A artists at Viertolan Koulu in Vantaa, Finland are making and sharing art with the artists at Кепа школу (Kepa School) in Karelia, Russia. The 1B artists at Viertolan Koulu in Vantaa, Finland are making and sharing art with the artists at Sheppard Public School in Ontario, Canada.

Magic Clouds to Rainbow Machines!

I have felt warmly welcome every time I have been to Viertolan Koulu's 3rd grade class! They are so happy, talented and positive kids and they are lucky to have such a good teacher: Maija Pitko. For a Christmas present I had lovely small concert from kids and Maija!  Also, we had Tatjana Knudsen´s wonderful class in Denmark as our pair in Dear you-project. Thank you for everybody! 

In the Let's Go! project we made inventions of all sorts! Check out the pictures of some of these ingenious ideas!

Eliisa

Soap bubble machine

Soap bubble machine (the pink one)

Rainbow Machine

You can drive through that to Denmark and there is station in the end.

Magic Cloud

Cloud that flies and moves with propellers that are made out of school pencils. You can also have a Christmas tree there!

Game controller

You can move to different places by using it and playing with it. 

Eliisa Sorvali, Dear You Workshop Leader, and 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. 

Sharing our atmosphere!

Our shared atmosphere was fun to do, to connect and share!

First Viertola´s schools 3rd graders from Maija Pitko´s class were standing in their chairs eyes closed and imaging the atmosphere and landscape between Finland and Denmark and flying in their imaginary trip! Then they started painting landscapes and drawing all the important details from their "imaginary trip". I could almost hear the imaginary airplanes and under land diggers!

- Eliisa Sorvali

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. 

Together we make it our world

Our third meeting, where we where making Our Shared Atmosphere went really well. At the beginning we made time to watch the video message we received from our friends at Amy Parks Heath Elementary School in Heath, TX, USA, which was very sweet and encouraging for the kids. Then we spent a few minutes learning how to fold the paper to make the line that will unite our individual works, turning them into a collective art work.

It seemed like a good idea to stick to only using grey pencil, which allowed us to focus on the mark-making techniques and on expressing feelings, sounds, light and shadow. We talked about how some students came to school early and it was dark and rainy, and how one hour later, for other students the walk to school was bright and sunny.

I think our time was managed really well this time. At the end we stuck all the drawings together with tape, to make one reeaaallly long picture of autumn time in Vantaa.

At the workshop we speak both English and Finnish - well, I mostly speak English and Riitta-Liisa translated, to make sure no one is left out.

A xx

Anastasia Artemeva is the Dear You Workshop Leader for the 4th grade class at Viertolan Koulu in Vantaa, Finland.  This group of Finnish artists will be making and sharing art with Kathleen Finan's 4th graders at Heath Amy Parks Heath Elementary School in Heath, Texas.

Putting yourself into the Pop Up Home!

Our pop up place project went really well. First we watched a video of the kids opening a packages with Imagine Me! puppets from Heath, Texas. They were really happy and excited! They took whatever puppets they got, so we had to change the pairs according to that. The kids thought that the puppets were much 'cooler' than the ones they sent.

I had the pop up cards pre-cut, I bought large sheets of card from Suomalainen Kirjakauppa and cut them in 4 pieces, each to be around A4 size, and I cut 3 different strips into each. 

I showed how to make a pop up card first anyway, in case kids wanted to make one at home. After I distributed the pre-made cards the kids made collage and drew on them.

They loved the technique. Some made their rooms, and some cut out and drew pictures of nature. We talked about sounds and smells, and how places can change, like if you are in your room and look out of the window. They put pictures of pets there. I loved that some used the actual strips of paper to draw on, not only to stick pictures, for instance one girl painted apartment blocks on them. 

We had a really great time.

A xxx

Anastasia Artemeva is the Dear You Workshop Leader for the 4th grade class at Viertolan Koulu in Vantaa, Finland.  They are making and sharing art with Kathleen Finan's 4th graders at Heath Amy Parks Heath Elementary School in Heath, Texas.

Gallery Block

These are example images. Double-click here to replace these images with your own content. Learn more

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.

Imagination gone wild and furry!

The 'Imagine Me' puppets that came from the 4th Grade students at Amy Parks Heath Elementary School were extraordinarily furry, friendly, and funny! Yes! Seeing them immediately put a smile on my face.

Kathleen Finan, the artists' art teacher, said, "I was given a box of faux fur and knew the kids would love it. We talked about having imaginary friend when we were young and the ways the helped us. Students chose materials from an assortment of goodies and started creating their imaginary friend. They named their  I-friend and wrote on the back how their I-friend helped them."

I am sure their friends in Viertolan Koulu in Vantaa, Finland will be amazed by their new friend's creativity! Oh the amazing things that come out of Texas :).