Dear You Art Project

Mail Art + Pen Friends = Dear You Art Project

2016

We are all together!

2016, 4 years old, 5 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, South Africa, VietnamArlene TuckerComment

Lamees, the teacher in the classroom introduced the project during circle time while discussing the weather. We stopped and heard a bit of wind. I asked if they could hear it. We described it as the wind was crashing against the classroom. I told the children instead of using paint brushes, what else can they find in the garden and the first thing they went to was the trees. The colors of the week are green and yellow so we kept in with our theme. 

The children were asked to go out into the school grounds and have a look to see what materials they could use / find which are different to what we would normally use in the classroom environment. The children looked around and
brought back pegs, sticks, leaves, twigs from around the school property and instead of using normal powder paint they decided to use food colouring.

The children loved the new and different way of painting and had a ball with the different leaves and colors.  

My Toddler Class this morning decided that they also wanted to be included in the latest art project, so we let them experiment.  The children in the Toddler class range in age from 19 months to 3 years of age.

Regards,
Tayla 

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.

The Music Moves the Tiger Cubs and the Puppies

2016, 4 years old, 5 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, South Africa, VietnamArlene TuckerComment

WOW! What a great art project! The children absolutely loved this project and they produced some wonderful pieces that showed their thoughts and feelings from the music.

We started off this project by closing our eyes and listening to some music. I chose Simply Three's instrumental version of Avicii's Wake me up.

I chose this song because it has some clear layers of music that will attract different students. I also chose an instrumental song because English lyrics might be too difficult for us at this stage. 

After listening to the song once, i replayed it and we broke down all the different parts of the song. The beats, the high pitched violin and the deep base sounds and we started to draw on the whiteboard what we think those sounds looked like. 

A very popular response was spotting on the board to the beat, and doing swirls and waves to the melody.

What about the colour? What colour does it sound like? Blue? Green? Red??

Now it was our turn to paint! We had a range of medium to paint with. We had paintbrushes-thick and thin, chop sticks, cardboard toilet rolls, scrunched up paper and tissue.

Then the music started again and we were ready to go. The children were so eager, some starting with their spotty beats and others making rainbow waves. We had circles, we had lines, we had swirls and we even had some happy faces.

We played the music a number of times until all the children had finished their painting. Some even did 2 or 3 paintings, which are now proudly displayed in our classroom.

What a wonderful art project that the children really enjoyed.

Love as always to our friends in South Africa and Finland!
Teacher Steph, the Tiger Cubs and the Puppies.

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.

Below are photographs from the workshop with the Tiger Cubs.

Below are pictures from the workshop with the Puppies.

Magnifying our life!

2016, 4 years old, 5 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Dear You Workshop Leader, Estonia, FinlandArlene TuckerComment

Hi,

Today we had a great pattern workshop. I had big magnifying glasses and apparently it was the most exiting thing. I instructed kids about the patterns, and they made things that they had seen through the magnifying glasses. For texture making we used simple color pencils so they are not that flashy. Kids were happy about the masks so I let them have it for a day.

Tomorrow I am going to collect them and send to Estonia.

Best,
Kristina

Kristina Laine and her 4-5 year old artists at Kalinka Päiväkoti in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with Evelyn Müürsepp and her 4-5 year old artists in Mooste Preschool in Mooste, Estonia.

Patterns from Mooste's Preschool

2016, 5 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Dear You Workshop Leader, Estonia, Finland, Pre-SchoolArlene TuckerComment

It's a great idea and kids are natural pattern creators. One thing confused them though- namely magnifying classes, I should have left these out and just focused on patterns we can see with our eyes. Otherwise it is too much information packed in 1 project: patterns and magnification and ones skin and masks. Otherwise kids really loved their masks and did not want to send them away, but when i reminded them that they get masks in return from other kids in Finland they agreed.

So cant wait untilyour masks arrive.

Best greets,
Evelyn

Evelyn Müürsepp and her 5-7 year old artists in Mooste Preschool in Mooste, Estonia are making and sharing art with Kristina Laine and her 4-5 year old artists at Kalinka Päiväkoti in Helsinki, Finland.

What am I? Oh what could I be?

2016, 4 years old, 5 years old, 6 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, Pre-School, USA, VietnamArlene TuckerComment

We first started the workshop by playing a riddle game.  This got our brains thinking about how can we tell things about an object without giving it away!  From there we went into the world of senses and on this adventure- it was all about taste!  We thought about what foods are local to Nordic countries and what foods are not.  It seems that most of Your School's artists love picking berries from the beautiful forests of Finland!  Can you guess what the Monkeys' and the Tigers' favorite foods are?

The Tigers are 4 year old artists at Your School in Espoo, Finland.  They are making and exchanging art with the Puppies, 4 year old artists at Just Kids School in Hanoi, Vietnam.

The Monkeys at Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with the Full Moons from Moonstone Preschool in Philadelphia, PA.

Go figure my riddle!

2016, Canada, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, 6th GradeArlene TuckerComment

Some students took it very literally, and just wrote clues without much art work to support what they were talking about... a lot of others provided a great amount of detail on each and every page.

Some almost made the books more puzzle-like - flip - to the back -    flip back to the front, hide the answer, hide clues, etc.  Again, the topic was pretty varied.  Some chose a food, others favourite characters from books or movies, or an animal...

Most really enjoyed it, some opted out of some of the more "creative" component of the book.... :)

Here are a few short words on the class website.

Kaarina

Kaarina Losey is the 6th grade teacher at Pioneer Park P.S. in Ontario, Canada.  Her group of artists are making and sharing art with the Päivi Huhtinen and her group of 5th graders from The English School in Helsinki, Finland.

From Iceland to Texas, with love!

2016, 2nd Grade, 1st Grade, Dear You Art Workshops, Iceland, USAArlene TuckerComment

Here are pictures of the work, tomorrow the books will be sent to Texas.  The kids have had much fun doing the books. They introduced their book to the class, keeping it a secret which food they had chosen. The class was guessing and they were very excited, and in the end the secret came out.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to take part in this, and it is also great to see it on Facebook.

Love, Halla and Guðný

The 1st and 2nd graders at Grunnskóli Fjallabyggðar in Siglufjörður, Iceland are making and sharing art with the 2nd graders at Amy Parks Heath Elementary School in Heath, Texas.

Guess what?! From Vietnam

2016, 4 years old, 5 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, South Africa, VietnamArlene TuckerComment

What a fitting project for our little learners!

We are currently learning all about food in our classroom. The kids loved making these little books, we had more fun talking about our favourite foods!

It turns out, we are just like everybody else! Our favourite foods are pizza, cake, cookies, apples, oranges, bananas....

We haven't learned too much about tastes but we do know lots about colours and shapes! 
Some of us say pasta is a circle, because of the plate, some see the long pieces of pasta! What colour is bread? what shape is a salad?? Different perspectives come from different minds.

We even turned it into a guessing game, guessing what something long and yellow is... or something red, yellow and a triangle shape....What fun!
We are also starting to write, we learned lots about writing shapes, colours and the names of our favourite foods.

We hope that our friends in Finland and South Africa enjoy our game and we look forward to learning what your favourite foods are!

Lots of love from Vietnam,
Teacher Steph, the Tiger Cubs and the Puppies
 

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.


Below are artworks from the Tigers Cubs.

Below are artworks from Puppies.

Thinking about 'What am I?' with Viertolan Koulu

2016, 7 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Dear You Workshop Leader, Finland, RussiaArlene TuckerComment

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.

Patterns to South Africa and Finland from Vietnam!

2016, 4 years old, 5 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, VietnamArlene TuckerComment

WOW! What an interesting project, we learned so much about ourselves and the world around us!

We started by looking around our classroom and noticing some repeated patterns around us. Particularly during the winter months, we can experiment with some interesting and wonderful patterns on our clothes.

Then we decided to go a little deeper, and we got some magnifying glasses and started looking at our skin. The wrinkles, the lines, the hairs. How interesting we are! What about our friends, what do their faces look like?? What happens when we pull funny faces?? when we raise our eyebrows??

Remembering what we saw, we got straight onto making our masks. we remembered the lines, the spots, the hairs and we made our masks with the patterns from our skin. But of course we had to add some colour! I hope our friends in Finland and our new friends in South Africa enjoy our masks!

Teacher Steph, the Tiger Cubs and the Puppies.

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.

Making shapes that move

2016, 4 years old, 5 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Dear You Workshop Leader, Estonia, FinlandArlene TuckerComment

After morning circle we looked at the works from our Helsinki friends, trying to understand what devices are depicted, how they move and what drives them. The kids got all excited to do their own vehicles. Everyone got a kit of 3 geometric shapes. We looked at them, named them and explored how can a rectangle be turned into a square, diamond into triangles and oval into half circles. The rule was that they can cut these shapes if they want (but only once and by halving them) and they can trade the shapes with their friends and add afterwards details with pens. Most of the kids started excitingly to work.

Markus: tank of Siim, it protects people from the baddies
Lauri: truck what carries miraculous sun sand
Ats: snowplough
Laas: one wheel train. for cat, ferret, mouse and birdies...
Matthias: horse pulls kings car
Mattias: tank what collects firewood for soldiers
Mona: crystal palace and princess bringing crystals
Eliise: estonian train, takes people from one place to another
Lotte-lisandra: flying car travelling to põlva (nearby town), my mummy waving to me because im going to buy her a bracelet
Henri: grandma and grandpa are taking post to avery usual castle
Ode: robot-butterfly is flying from blossom to blossom
Kar-kaarel: carbage truck what carries chocolate
Siim: cumputer tank what can be upgraded

best greetings,
evelyn

Evelyn Müürsepp and her 4-5 year old artists in Mooste Preschool in Mooste, Estonia are making and sharing art with Kristina Laine and her 4-5 year old artists at Kalinka Päiväkoti in Helsinki, Finland.

Walking this way and that way!

1st Grade, 3rd Grade, 2016, Canada, DenmarkArlene TuckerComment

The headline "I'm a walking pattern" made my 3rd graders wonder how they actually could be walking patterns, but it didn't take long before they started to examine their hands, fingerprints, eyes and skin. As a teacher it was an interesting process. My students were so absorbed in their study that they didn't really need me in the room. 

Very fast my students discovered that our body really is a walking pattern. One of the students even said: "Tatjana, it is so amazing our body is full of different lines and patterns......each and every one of us is a little miracle". Wauw!

Another student asked if they could have magnifying glasses, and of course they could. Within a few minutes I saw 19 young detectives investigating patterns on their hands, fingers, and skin.

I asked my students how we could make a piece of art, that could show what we had discovered about our magnificent body. One suggested that they made drawing of their fingerprints, another said that It would be fun if they could make a print of a hand walk. I was into the last idea, and I must say that I think the results are so full of creativity. I'm proud of my 3rd. graders and I hope that our friends in Canada will be pleased with "the walking handprints"

My best,
Tatjana

Tatjana Knudsen and her 3rd grade artists from Korsholm Skole in Hinnerup, Denmark are making and sharing art with Elizabeth Goldsworthy's 1st graders at Sheppard Public School in Ontario, Canada.

The English School find creativity everywhere!

2016, 5 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, CanadaArlene TuckerComment

The first impression pupils had on this task was "creepy". Observing their own skin was not so interesting for them. Finally they choose to take this project with eager minds :) They are very curious about their new Canadian friends. I let them to see and read the letters we have received this far. 

A few did masks using different materials. Many borrowed faces or part of somebody else´s face using the magazine photos. They enjoyed playing with the Mac photobooth.

Br,
Päivi Huhtinen

Päivi Huhtinen and her group of 5th graders from The English School in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with Kaarina Losey and her 6th graders at Pioneer Park P.S. in Ontario, Canada.

Looking very closely to find...

2016, 2nd Grade, Dear You Art Workshops, USA, IcelandArlene TuckerComment

My students used magnifying glasses to find interesting patterns on their hands and arms. We all made heart shape finger prints to see the different line patterns on our thumbs. Then I let them lose to create a mask with patterns they found on their body.  

Kathleen Finan

The 2nd graders at Amy Parks Heath Elementary School in Heath, Texas are making and sharing with the 1st and 2nd graders at Grunnskóli Fjallabyggðar in Siglufjörður, Iceland.

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.