Dear You Art Project

Mail Art + Pen Friends = Dear You Art Project

2016

The Monkeys and their new friends in Mexico

2016, 5 years old, 6 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Dear You Workshop Leader, Finland, Mexico, Pre-SchoolArlene TuckerComment

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 Tigers tell it all!

2016, 4 years old, Dear You Workshop Leader, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, Pre-School, MexicoArlene TuckerComment

The Tigers from Your School in Espoo, Finland are bubbling in their seats about their new friends in Nursery A from Colegio San Patricio Cumbres in Monterrey, Mexico.  Both groups of artists are 4 years old.

In the first project, Lights, Camera, Action!, we made artworks of a character from our favorite story. This is our introductory piece of art to getting to know each other.  The sun was also a tool to create our art with.  Good thing the sun was shining bright in Finland!

The stories liked were Goldilocks, Batman, Tree Monster, My Little Pony, Spiderman, Batman, Shark Story, Magical Fairy, Superman, Ten Little Monkeys Jumping on a Bed, and Ninja.  Do you like these stories too?  Which characters do you like from the story?

We can't wait to meet you!

With love,
Arlene, Toti, Zeynab and The Tigers

The perfect picnic!

2016, 2nd Grade, Dear You Art Workshops, Collective Art, Finland, USAArlene TuckerComment

How happy we were when the table cloth arrived! It is a beautiful piece – and the fish is so appropriate because here we love fish and Siglufjörður is famous for fish industry (herring industry) in the past. And also now, although we don´t fish herring still. We have already had picnic twice and used that beautiful tablecloth, as you can see on the pictures. It was quite a good idea to have the names of the kids on the cloth, then their friends could sit at the „right“ place.

All the projects in the Dear you work have been inspiring and brought out creative thinking – good for both children and teachers. We would be happy to take part next year, it would be better not to start in August/Sept. .... maybe January would be good for us like this year. Tomorrow is the last day of school for the kids, but teachers will be working until 9th of June.

Thank you Kathleen and Arlene!

All the best,
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.

Zen tangled together

2016, 6th Grade, Dear You Art Workshops, Canada, FinlandArlene TuckerComment

The students enjoyed the project, but many had difficulty with developing a pattern. Some are more of an image, and some are more of a variation of a zen tangle - I showed them some of those images and that seemed to have sparked a bit of creativity with some students! 

To view the works please click here.

This was a wonderful experience for the students this year! Can't wait to see how it goes again next year!

Have a wonderful and enjoyable summer!
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.

 

Hyvää ruokahalua! Enjoy your meal!!

2016, 7 years old, 8 years olds, Collective Art, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, Russia, CanadaArlene TuckerComment

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.

Come out for a picnic with us!

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

Now we have almost finished the table cloth, the gift to our friends in Texas. The kids are so proud of their work! We had a lot of fun doing the project „Come have a bite to eat with me“, and the kids liked thinking that their friends abroad would go out for a picnic using the table cloth that was made here in Iceland. Ithas lively, happy colours as we would like to feel when we go out together and have a good meal!

On Wednesday, we will have a school exhibition where the kids are showing their work to their parents and inhabitants of our town are invited. We really want to have the cloth there for them to introduce this wonderful project to them. After that we will send it to you.

Best wishes to you all,
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.

Dynamic Dinosaurs sound their surroundings!

2016, 4 years old, 5 years old, India, TurkeyArlene TuckerComment

Happy Spring Everyone!

We are happy to share our “Sounding our Surroundings” products with us! We enjoyed collecting some leaves before we start to it. Then we focused on sounds we hear while we are sitting or playing in the garden.

After that we started our Project at the tables and try to focus on sounds around us. When we hear noise we preferred to paint fast, when we hear quite sounds we paint slow.

We also change our painting styles depending on sound level too. Such as some of us painted more circular when it is noisy and painted straight lines when it is quiet.

We enjoyed painting with the leaves and we hope you’ll like them as much as we do!

Warm regards,
Dynamic Dinosaurs. 

The 4-5 year old Dynamic Dinosaurs from Açi Preschool in Istanbul, Turkey are making and sharing art with the artists from Praxis School in Mysore, India.

A beautiful place for your meal!

2016, 2nd Grade, Collective Art, Dear You Art Workshops, Dear You Workshop Leader, Iceland, USAArlene TuckerComment

Printmaking and putting it to use is not only fun, but so rewarding for everybody. In this case, the Texans' friend in Iceland will enjoy their food even more when looking at such lovely designs!

Kathleen Finan and her group of 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.

Enjoy your meal : )

2016, 4 years old, 5 years old, Collective Art, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, Pre-School, South Africa, VietnamArlene TuckerComment

What a creative and colourful project this was!

We have learnt so much about ourselves and our friends across the oceans by doing this project. The children were so excited to show off all of their new geographical knowledge. We have marked all of the places we know on a large map, so now we can easily find them. 

We remembered all of the projects in this series so far, our masks decorated with skin patterns, our rhythmic paintings using so many painting objects and our food book. Now it's time to combine them all! We started a discussion about our dinner table, and what we need to put on it. Plates, knives and forks, chopsticks? What about under them? We need a beautiful table cloth or placemats. We gathered a range of objects in different shapes and sizes. We found cd's and blocks, triangles and rectangles and squares. 

We started by choosing one shape and we made some traces with it. Then we chose a second shape and then a third if we wanted. We watched how the lines overlapped and it made different shapes on the inside.

When we were finished it was time to colour! We coloured each section with a different colour. How amazing and bright they looked with all these beautiful colours.

When we were finished we all looked at each other's and tried to put them together to make one big table cloth, but we decided that it was much more exciting if each guest at our international dinner table had a different piece of art under their plate.

The children have absolutely loved being a part of the Dear You project. Now as the little Tiger cubs and Puppies graduate their last year in kindergarten, they enter big school with knew knowledge of cultures, geography, creativity and wonder. 

Thank you for letting us be a part of this project and we hope to continue work with you in years to come.

Lots of love to our friends overseas,
Teacher Steph, the Tiger Cubs and the Puppies.

Below are pictures from the workshop with the Puppies.

Below are pictures from the workshop with the Tiger Cubs.

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.

Sounding our Little Forest "Pikku Metsa"

2016, 7 years old, 8 years olds, Canada, Dear You Workshop Leader, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, RussiaArlene TuckerComment

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.

Books open up so many questions!

2016, 4 years old, 5 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Dear You Workshop Leader, Finland, Estonia, Pre-SchoolArlene TuckerComment

Last week we did the book workshop. The workshop was very intense.

I think it was a good experience for kids to think about the food.  Children had drawn their favorite foods and then the ingredients separately. I asked children many questions how food is made and where the ingredients for the food come from. Children had many questions and it was interesting to see how they are figuring out the food chain.

Kristina Laine

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 5-7 year old artists in Mooste Preschool in Mooste, Estonia.

Здравствуйте! Hello from Karelia!

2016, 1st Grade, Russia, FinlandArlene TuckerComment

Здравствуйте! Посылаю фото масок и книг, думаю. Напишу, когда начнем делать след задание. Всего наилучшего!
Эльвира

"Hi! Here are photos of the books and the mask. I will message when we start making the next task. All the best!"
Elvira

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

Abstract paintings from Texas

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

We enjoyed creating our abstract painting, without using a brush, while listening to music. We were unable to walk around and find natural items to paint with so I put out drinking straws, Q-tips, and wooden popsicle sticks to paint with.  We listened to the music then I demonstrated a few ways to use our new painting tools. The children had a fun time listening to the music and painting.

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.

Imagining noises : )

2016, 2nd Grade, Dear You Art Workshops, Estonia, AustriaArlene TuckerComment

Dear you!

I send you a few pictures from our march-project.

It is not as you told us to do, because we had such a rainy weather and we could not go out and pick up some things from nature.

So we talked about things we hear, when we are in different surroundings. In nature we hear birds, the rain, the trees and a lot of animals. In town we hear a lot of people going and talking, a lot of cars. When we are at home, in our bed, we hear the cars from the street, the family talking, the rain on the window.

So you will see, it isvery interesting to see the pictures and you can imagine by yourself the noises.

Hope you are fine and we wish you happy easter!

Best,
Simone 

Simone Zobl and her second graders from Evangelischen Volksschule am Karlsplatz in Vienna, Austria are making and sharing art with Aili Vassil and her group of second graders from Mooste Põhikool in Mooste, Estonia.

After the storm in Siglufjörður...

2016, 2nd Grade, 8 years olds, Dear You Art Workshops, Iceland, USAArlene TuckerComment

The day after a big storm in Siglufjörður we went out to see what the wind had brought us. The ground had been all white the previous days because it had been snowing every day for many days. But that morning the snow was not white, it was covered with pine needles and branches from trees and all kind of stuff that the kids picked up. When they were painting they were thinking of the sound of the storm which brought us all this. We had all kinds of sounds, whispering, whistling, banging and heavy/vigorous sounds.

Below are pictures of the artist's work and also one picture taken before the storm, where the kids in 1-4th grade are outside by their snow-fort. As you can see spring has not come here yet, though we have had good weather the last days.

By, by Halla and Gyðný

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.