Integrating Celtic calligraphy into our art

On this 2nd project "The Art of Asking Questions" we provided for inspiration a couple of printed letter books. One with old fashion printing fonts and the other with intrinsic Celtic calligraphy. Also letter stamps and different art materials brushes, watercolour and acrylics, oil pastels...and so on. We talked about friendship and what sort of interests do they share with their friends and what would they like to know about their new friends in Australia. They were asked to incorporate one question only in their art work which took them a while to decide since naturally they were curious about many things. It was suggested to add a letter with their artwork if they thought a question was too little to express. But eventually they were happy with painting while talking about all the possible questions. The interesting thing was in order to cultivate this friendship they thought of asking questions about their opinions on certain topics. Topics that are relevant to them now and not so much about differences of lifestyles between Australia and Ireland which we also talked about but they decided to focus on what do they have in common instead of what it was different.

Another enjoyable session that could have last for hours. Thank you!

Marta, Carol & Gabrielle

Derreen home schoolers in Derreen, Ireland are making and sharing art with the homeschoolers in Geelong, Australia.

Ripples in the valleys

We followed the suggestions in the project outline (closing our eyes and feeling things, then crumpling and flattening out our paper). The idea that most students went with was the use of watered down tempera paints. We were hoping that the paints would be watered down enough to flow through the wrinkles or the "valleys" on the paper. Students could either use the paint brush, tilt their paper back and forth to move the watered down paint, or blow on the drops of watered down paint.

Most used a brush to drop paint onto their paper and tilted the page. We were doing the painting outside (finally some sunshine and warm weather!) and it was a very windy day, so the wind was also a factor in how some of the paint was moved around... :)

Much of the finished artworks look very abstract and like the paint was flung, but that was not quite what happened. Also, some of the students made comments like "this is New York City" or "this is a metropolis" for a paper very full of paint. Others made comments about it being more rural when there were areas with less paint, just as we would expect to see on a road map.

Overall, they had a really fun time with the activity! It is also more fun to paint outside than in the portable! :)  To see a presentation of Feel the Flow project, please click here.

Thanks!
Kaarina

Kaarina Losey is the 6th grade teacher at Ryerson P.S. in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada.  Her group of artists are making and sharing art with the Päivi Huhtinen and her group of 6th graders from The English School in Helsinki, Finland.

Crinkles and wrinkles from Singapore

Children had fun playing with paper. Folding and unfolding the papers to observe shapes and patterns was interesting. The curious minds were able to observe designs on the papers and connect them with the surroundings. 

Our inquiry on skin and how it looks was explored further with comparison to the lines on a paper.  

The artists were asked to:
•Close your eyes and feel the paper
•Crumple the paper into a ball or fold it as you wish to.
•Close your eyes and feel the creases.
•Find a section in the paper that might mean something to you.

Below were some ideas shared by our children.

Warm Regards,
Rachel

Leeann 5

I folded a paper into a hand fan. When I opened the paper I saw lines. They looked like giant doors. Then I folded it into a paper wand. When I opened the paper, I accidently made a hole in the paper. Then I crushed the paper and opened it. I saw may lines on the paper. Then I painted the paper with red, pink, brown, yellow, blue and purple. I painted a rainbow treasure map.

Emilia 4+

I folded the paper and made an aero plane and opened it. I saw almost a lion face. Then I crushed the paper and opened it. It felt a bit bumpy . It looked like a bumpy design. After I painted it looked like a map. Later I tried to trace over the lines andit looked like a big map with no houses. Later I crushed another paper and made a treasure map with my friends.

Xi Wen 5

We folded the paper. Then we opened the paper. Then we folded the paper again. Then we opened the paper. I could see triangles. They looked like mountains. Then I painted it. I painted with many colours. I used the brush to paint a triangle. I like my painting. I enjoy painting.

Oliver 4

I rolled a paper into a magic wand and opened it. The paper looked flat except for the edge that was a little curved. The I folded it like a sandwich and I opened it and it looked like windows. Then I painted the paper in the middle, yellow, brown and red. Then I painted below, dark blue and light brown. I also painted the top dark green and light blue and red. It looked like rainbow blinds.

Avinaash 4+

I folded the paper and opened it. It looked like a machine. It looked like a machine that could squeeze the rubbish. I could stretch the paper and flatten it. Then I painted it and it looked very nice. It also looked like a staircase.

Advaith 5

At the beginning the paper felt smooth. I made it into a fan. Then I unfolded it and made it into a big plane. Whenunfolded it, I saw small holes . Then I crumpled it and made it into a mountain.  Then when I flattened it, there was another hole on the sides. I felt that the lines made a connecting bridge from one city to another. Then I decided to paint an orange bridge.. Then I followed the lines of the paper and painted one whole line green. I painted the other side of the bridge blue. Then I painted a slant line black andalso painted a horizonalline black. The other horizontal line was red and golden. I figuredout that it was beginning to look like an Australian flag.

Tan Jing Ru

A Shell

Caitlin 5

I crumpled up a paper and then I opened and saw the shapes. I saw lots of roofs. Then I folded it and opened it up again. I did this a few times. Then I flattened it. My paper looked like lion’s face because it had one diamond and four triangles. Then I used orange to paint and then I used purple and then I used light pink. Then I used orange but it was like orange because it was brown. Then I used dark pink and a little bit more dark pink. My picture looks like a rainbow sun.

Jordan 5

At first I folded the paper into an aero plane. When I unfolded it, it looked like a flower as it had triangles anda circle in the middle

I crumpled a paper very hard and it became like grandpa and grandma’s skin. Then I tried to connect the lines to form a lion’s face. But as I was painting I realized that it was beginning to look more like a Bison . The lines looked as though the bison was bending down eating grass. It also looked like a bumpy wall.

Jia Wen 5

I folded a paper into a plane. ThenI unfolded it and made a boat. Then I crushed it and folded it again into a rectangle. Then I opened it. When I unfolded it, I saw six rectangles. Then I painted it.  I painted with purple, orange, green and yellow and dark pink and dark purple and light pink and dark green. I added more lines onto it. I painted a bit of red on one of the sides. It looked like colourful doors. Then I crumpled another paper with my friends. ThenI made a treasure map with my friends.

The 3-4 year old artists from EtonHouse Bilingual Pre-school in Singapore are making and sharing art with the 3-4 year old artists from Oakdale Montessori Preschool in Cape Town, South Africa.

Looking around and what do we see?

Here are the photos of the spiral artworks for Look Around project. The index cards are their explanations of their artworks. Some of them painted outside, some painted inside because it had gotten too cold the one day to paint outside of the portable! :)

These works are all on their way to Päivi and her students. They were posted earlier this week, so hopefully they arrive before the holiday break! 

Teacher Kaarina Losey

The 6th graders at Ryerson P.S. in Cambridge, ON, Canada are making and sharing art with the 6th graders from The English School in Helsinki, Finland.

K1 have open arms for their friends in Mexico!

Today was an extra special Dear You workshop with the lovely artists at International School of Helsinki!  They were so excited to see what was in the package!  We read the letter from Kinder 3B and talked about their artworks.  Who is this frog character?  By looking at the artworks, what kind of personality does this frog have?  One of the best parts of this first share was reading the names of the artists in Mexico.  Some of us have friends or brothers and sisters with the same names!

Before the students came in from the park, Mrs. Maaninka showed me what K1 has been up to in their Unit of Inquiry, as part of PYP.  She showed me the great dioramas of the different landscapes and habitats they have been exploring. This subject coincided very nicely with the current Dear You project, Look around, which is about creating our character's environment using watercolors and wax crayons.

In circle time, we started off the workshop with an active discussion on what elements are in our environment.  When we step out of our school, what do we see?  The children said rocks, birds, trees, snow.  Oh, good thing they brought up snow!  I asked them, when I was here in October for the Layers of Love project, did we have snow?  No!  So that means our environment and our habitat changes.  We talked about these changes in relation to day time and night time too.  

We then shifted to our characters and thought about if we were at our character's home and stepped out for a walk, what would we see?  As you will soon discover, every artist in K1 was using their own imagination and making it come to life!

VA: In the day time there are bears who likes to wake up and eat berries. There are trees and lots of snow.  In the night time the bear sleeps so much under the moon light in the cave.

AR: In the day time it is sunny with a rainbow in the sky. At night time it is bright.

KES: Outside of Elsa's house is the blue sky, a bench, and yellow snow. At night time there are stars, sun, and moon, in the sky.

KEI: There is snow and it is dark at night time.

DEE: There are trees and it is dark at nigh!

MIC: Doodle saw two boxes and two dog balls. At night time there are star, trees, moon and one star is starting to break.

DEV: There is a house, trees, and raining rocks in the sky. At night time birds sleep in the nest in the dark sky with the moon.

SAS: In the day time there is sunshine and trees.

ENZ: In the day time you can see Darth Vader and rocks.  At night time you can see Star Wars, a princess, and Darth Vader.

SHR: In the day time, you can see a snake and princess Rapunzel. She was happy to see the sun! At night time, she is sleeping and there was a mouse.

GAU: You can see a boat on the water and mountains in the day time. At night time we sleep and the mountain looks like a letter.

ALE: This is Chewbacca's home. I am outside. There is a window. It is in the night time. It is a special house because Chewbacca lives there.

AIS: I drew a dog and he is going to sleep. It is night time. He has a tree home. There is a bear looking at his tree. It is dark outside.

SAT: I painted all sand.  There are snowballs. It is outside a boy's home. It is during the day, I see the sun. In the night time it is dark.

SPE: This is the night. The people are sleeping and the bad guys are trying to steal the candy. We are outside the treat's home. In the day time, I see candy rocks in the water. There is grass outside. The sun is shining, but it almost dark.

We hope you enjoy our artworks and stories!

With love,
Arlene and the artists of K1

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.

Autumn in Berlin

I am happy to send you some pictures of our wonderful artworks. Our kids depicted our environments as they see it -  full of autumn colors and favourite places. You can hang our environments both from day side and from night side, they are equally beautiful!

Best regards, 
Lusine

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

For many reasons, we are happy Monkeys!

The happy Monkeys just got happier!  They were very excited to receive the lovely letter and artworks from K2B class in Mexico.  Every part of the process was exciting- from reading the names of our friends to talking about Elmer the Elephant!  Thank you! Kiitos! Gracias!

We first started talking about what we see when we walk out of the school.  What is the environment like outside of Your School's doorstep?  Monkeys talked about pine trees, birds, bushes, and now we have snow.  Now the grass is covered with white snow.

Then we continued with our characters and where their homes are.  We imagined if we were at our friend's home and stepped outside, what would we find.  How would it look in the daytime and what about at nighttime?  The Monkeys first used wax crayons to accentuate and outline shapes.  When they painted over with watercolor this art technique helped highlight what they were trying to show in their painting.

K2B, we have a couple of questions for you.  Do you have snow in Mexico?  What do you like to do for fun?

We hope you like our artworks and we look forward to hearing from you!

Our best,
Arlene & 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.