Kanelit and the Monkeys make art at MIF!

Kanelit (Cinnamons) and The Monkeys got together at Museum of Impossible Forms in Kontula, Helsinki to make art!

It is amazing that the Monkeys from Your School in Olari, Espoo and Kanelit from Päiväkoti Pihapirtti in Kontula, Helsinki got to meet in person after months of making and sharing art from a distance!!  What an exciting morning we had at Museum of Impossible Forms!

We first got into small groups of mixed artists from the two schools to listen to the sound art we had made for the previous art project.  This way they could meet and get to know each other by physically making art with each other!  Everybody was so open and kind with each other. 

The first part of this session's artistic process was listening to each other describe what they saw in the environment.  This brought immediate smiles to their faces as they heard their own voices and their friends' on the loud speakers.  The Cinnamon group made these recordings and The Monkeys made these.  As they listened to the recordings they could draw what they heard.  They could be more abstract or more literal with their drawings.  For example, some chose to draw the soundwaves of children laughing in the background and some drew snow and sun as they were mentioned in the recordings.  The artists were free to go in any direction they wish, but the awareness of connecting sound to thought to visual output was discussed. 

After some time of collective drawing, the possibility to collage and build with maps was introduced. Maps were chosen for their symbolic purpose as our artists live in different locations, but have come together to meet and create.  Simple 2D maps turned into 3D bridges, people, and tunnels.  I was so impressed with everybody's creativity!  Masterminds at work!

We closed the day by taking a long caterpillar walk to look at the artworks and made a circle where the artists could reflect on the morning and their experience.  It seemed that everybody really enjoyed meeting their friends and making collages together.  In the closing circle, they realized that they had more in common than their love for making art!  The topic of languages came up and they discovered that their friends from the other school could speak Somali, Russian, Albanian, Finnish, and English!  What an amazing bunch of young artists and teachers that encourage their creativity and help grow their confidence!

The Monkeys stayed at MIF to eat their lunch before hopping on the metro to head back to Espoo.  Marianne Niemelä, one of the artistic directors of MIF, came up with the great idea to make wristbands!  Naturally, these were a huge hit with the kids and now they all want to come back to make more!  Thank you, Marianne!

Thank YOU and Dear You wishes you all and happy happy summer! Hyvää kesää!

With love,
Arlene

The 6 year old artists at Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with the 6 year old artists from Päiväkoti Pihapirtti in Helsinki, Finland.

In winter 2018 Dear You project in Kontula is supported by the Museum of Impossible Forms.

Listening to who is there

We introduced this theme in a very special way. The class sat in a big circle and closed their eyes. The played the Montessori “Silence Game” which is a calming, meditation like game which allows the child to use their senses like hearing. Once they closed their eyes, I asked them to tell me what they can hear.

- The trees in the wind
- The birds chirping
- The doorbell ringing

We got the children to paint, colour in and stick paper to make 3 sounds that they heard.

Enjoy our art project! 

Love,
Oakdale Montessori 3-6 years class

The 3-6 year old artists at Oakdale Montessori School in Cape Town, South Africa are making and sharing art with the 3-4 year old artists from EtonHouse Bilingual Pre-school in Singapore and the 1st and 2nd graders from Grunnskóli Fjallabyggðar in Siglufjörður, Iceland.

Have a seat in our home!

All the Monkeys were very eager to share what their homes are like. What a welcoming bunch of artists! We described what our homes look like, what kind of textures we can find there, even what kind of smells would be cooking in the kitchen. We got us really inspired was thinking about what part of our home is the most comforting. Using pop-up techniques, collage, and drawing we recreated our favorite part of our home!

Ka: This is my panda lying down on the sofa. The curtains and windows are here. There are two doors at my house. The house is white.

Ol: THis is my teddy bear. I have a sofa, door, and my house is brown.

Aa: I have a tv and a painting on the wall.

No: There is dust in my home. There are chairs and tables.

Cs: I have a couch and my dad and brother are at home. I see the table, bedroom, and my toys.

Iu: I have a table and my dolls, my computer, my toy cat, my pencils, sofa and chair, and fish.

Er: My couch, carpet, and door.

Ak: I have lamps, carpet, sofa and a teddy bear.

Lu: I see the sky and the tv and chairs.

We hope our friends in Dubai like our artwork and welcome to Finland!

With love,
The Monkeys, Arlene, Ben, and Atefeh

The 6 year old Monkeys from Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing with the 4-6 year olds in KG2D from Collegiate American School in Dubai, U.A.E. 

Making it real from Mexico!

This project went great, kids were really excited about their houses popping out of the paper and they got magazines cut outs to accessorize and try to make it as similar as possible. 

Mrs. Vicke Benavides

The 6 year olds in Prepri C from Colegio San Patricio in Monterrey, Mexico are making and sharing art with the 4-6 year olds in KG2C from Collegiate American School in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Stirring the imagination!

Artworks from the artists at Кепская школа им. Ортье Степанова (Kepa School) in Karelia, Russia

We received wonderful works from Russia and many of the class in SVK were inspired by them. This time we did the environment and the means of transportation. Children made their means of transportation and the environment. The work from Russia ( underground mine and diamonds) stirred kids imagination. Many did the imaginative diamond world as their destination.

The artists from 2B at Suomalais-venäläinen koulu are making and sharing art with the artists from Кепа школу (Kepa School) in Karelia, Russia.

Artworks from Suomalais-venäläinen koulu

Our rooms in our house

The pop up house was interesting! We hadn't done anything like this before so we had practice at cutting scrap paper first.

The children were very excited to represent their lives through a room in their house and tried hard to find things from a catalogue that looked like their furniture. They like making their room come to life and it sparked a conversation about different kinds of beds!

The 5 and 6 year old artists in Class 1 at Sneinton C of E Primary School in Nottingham, England are making and sharing art with the 4 to 6 years olds in KG2B at Collegiate American School in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

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.

The Monkeys collect, make, and mail art!

The Monkeys explored travels in the deep sea all the up to space. We first discussed all the ways one could travel. And then we put a twist on it since anything is possible in our imagination! From then on we had space rockets that could also act as airplanes and we had boats that could change to a million different speeds!

Continuing with the goodness of recycling, we used old candy wrappers and other papers to make our artworks.  The Monkeys thought, is there Fazer chocolate in Mexico?  They really hope so!

Looking forward to receiving artworks from our friends in Mexico! Thanks!

Our best,
Arlene & The Monkeys

The Monkeys from Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with Rocio Fernandez and her artists from Prepri B from Colegio San Patricio Cumbres in Monterrey, Mexico.  Both groups of artists are 5-6 years old.

Our world is big, connected, and full of creative ways of getting from here to there :).

The Tigers make their way to Mexico!

I was so very impressed with how imaginative the Tigers were!  Some even made a three-dimensional boat to travel to their friends in Mexico!  Before getting started on the artworks we first had a good conversation about what vehicles were and how different vehicles travel.  The Tigers then decided to try to make some that fly, float, and go underwater!

The Tigers collected ice cream wrappers and candy wrappers from a recent birthday party to use for the collage. Have you ever had Penguin ice cream?

Thank you!

With love,
Arlene & The Tigers

The Tigers from Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with Nursery A from Colegio San Patricio Cumbres in Monterrey, Mexico.  Both groups of artists are 4 years old.

Our connected world!

K1 makes creative connections!

We have been getting to know ourselves and the world through making art.  Now let's put all the pieces together and make a collective piece of art which shows different ways to get to our friends in Mexico!

As we were using recycled materials, the artists realized that this was also a sensorial experience! They smelled the empty coffee bags and thought that this could help with the travels :).  Some K1ers said that Mommy likes to drink coffee.

Submarines, flying helicopters, jets, and more!

Thank you!

Our best,
K1 and Arlene Tucker

The 4-5 year olds in K1 at International School of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with the 4-5 year olds in K2B class from San Patricio Colegio in Monterrey, Mexico.

Here's a panoramic view of K1's world!

Small stories and big ideas from Berlin

Happy to send you some pictures from our project, Lights, Camera, Action!

Kids were excited to make their characters and to expand as they created more. I send you our small stories and some pictures.

Here are some stories from the group:

The rabbit goes for a walk. The rabbit melts because of the sun.

This is a monster. He likes stones and sweets. He doesn't like mashed potatoes.

This is a nice ghost. He eats meat, especially pork. He plays ball.

This is my mother. She goes for a walk and then to her work. She likes to eat rice and meat at home.

Lusine Boyajyan and her 4-5 year old artists from Kita Felix and Friends in Berlin, Germany are making and sharing art with the 4-5 year olds with Angy Castillo and her Kinder A class from Colegio San Patricio in Monterrey, Mexico.

K1 and all their charismatic characters!

Dear Kinder B,

We are so happy to be friends with you all at Colegio San Patricio in Monterrey, Mexico! We had fun making our characters from our favorite stories for you.

To get started we first looked online to see where Monterrey is on the map. You are really far from Finland! Good thing we figured out how to travel to you! We've got many options, such as boat, airplane, helicopter, and we could swim if we really wanted to.

It was a sunny day in Helsinki when we made our artworks, which made it extra fun to explore the mixing of these colored silk papers. The sun makes everything look so beautiful! What is the weather like in Monterrey now?

In K1 many of us like Elsa. Do you know which story this character is from? Frozen! We also like Doodle from Blue Hat Green Hat, Spiderman, Dora, Transformers, Batman, Lego Ninjago, Lego Chima, Cinderella, Pokemon, and Emma. 

What stories do you like? Which characters?

Looking forward to hearing from you all!

With love,
Ms Tucker, Ms Maaninka, Ms Longmore, Mr Hubbard, and all the fun-loving kids in K1

The 4-5 year old artists at International School of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with Kinder B at Colegio San Patricio in Monterrey, Mexico.

The Monkeys and their new friends in Mexico

Eyes wide open and with welcoming ears, the Monkeys were very excited to hear that their new Dear You friends are from Monterrey, Mexico! The 5 and 6 year olds from Your School and Colegio Bosques de las Cumbres will be making and sharing art!

The Monkeys had the great ideas to look in the geography book where Mexico was. They then figured out ALL the ways to get to our new friends from Finland. We could swim! Use a submarine! Fly a helicopter! Drive a boat!

After we had a good conversation about our favorite stories and the characters that live in the story we got to work! We first cut and organized our transparent silk paper and then collaged it onto sticky paper. This stickiness was at first a challenge, but the artists persevered and made beautiful artworks, as you can see!  We then tested our artworks against the light and then adding onto it with either more colored paper or markers.

The Monkeys like Butterfly, Ninja, Pokémon, Transformers, Chima Legos, Kung Fu Panda, Hedgehog stories. Do you recognize these stories? What stories do you like?

We can't wait to hear about your stories!

With love,
Arlene, Ben, Atefeh & The Monkeys

The 5-6 year old Monkeys from Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with the 5-6 year olds from Colegio Bosques de las Cumbres in Monterrey, Mexico.

The Monkeys have made great travel companions for their friends at Moonstone Preschool

Ask the Monkeys for some travel advice and they will offer every kind of possibility! From buses to trains to rockets. This all came about when we were figuring out how our Imagine Me puppets are going to reach our new friends at Moonstone Preschool in Philadelphia, USA. Finland is quite a ways from there, but we are up for an adventure!

As we were creating our puppets we thought about what makes a good friend and here are some things the Monkeys said about their imaginative artworks. Meet Seek. Seek is a good friend because "he helps me when I need help," says J. N's puppet's name is Elsa. "She's a good friend because she's nice to me." I's Stella is "fun and playing with everybody. Listening to the teacher and doing everything herself." E called her friend Rosey. "Rosey is nice. She helps me get the way out." A's puppet Super Savior "saves me when I'm in danger!" M's puppet is a boat named Oh No. When I asked M why Oh No is a good friend, she said, "She makes me laugh." I think that's one of the most important characteristics a friend should have too!

Thanks for the lovely afternoon, Monkeys!

With love,
Arlene

The Monkeys (6 years old) from Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with the Full Moons (5 years old) from Moonstone Preschool in Philadelphia, USA. 

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