Dear You Art Project

Mail Art + Pen Friends = Dear You Art Project

2016

Feeling happy in Singapore : )

2016, 3 years old, 4 years old, Mexico, SingaporeArlene TuckerComment

We finally got mail from Mexico! Our children were so amazed to see a big envelope in each of their private letter box. Upon admiring the materials used to paste within the boundaries on the crafts, some of our children shared their prior knowledge about the story The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and did sequencing of the days of the week and matching the food crafts accordingly. 

Regards,
Nurul'Ain

Nurul'Ain, N2B teacher, and her 3 and 4 year old artists from EtonHouse Bilingual Pre-School in Singapore are making and sharing art with Marianna Diaz and her 4 year old artists in Nursery B at Colegio San Patricio in Monterrey, Mexico. 

The school of fish have a new home

2016, Germany, MexicoArlene TuckerComment
We were delighted to receive a parcel from Mexico. The fishes found a comfortable place in our room, even made friends with our fishes!

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.

The Layers of Love from Berlin!

2016, 4 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Dear You Workshop Leader, Germany, Mexico, Pre-SchoolArlene TuckerComment

I am happy to send you some pictures of our scratch project and the amazing stories of our creative artists. Our kids were delighted to see the new colorful images coming out as they scratched using very different tools: plastic forks and knives and other sharp objects. Some of them depicted inside of the place where the character lived, others displayed the outside.

Here are some of our stories:
Basti: This is a house with a chimney and smoke comes out of the chimney, down there is grass and the sun is up in the sky. Here I have a door and two windows. And here is my bed. 

Raphael: This is a house. Out of the chimney comes a thick smoke. It has a door and windows. Near the house explodes an askumet. In the front of the house are large cobblestones.

Leyla: It's a man with a house, a letter box and a tent. The house is full of ghosts. The doors and windows are broken. In the left corner is a heart for the monster. 

Maya: It's a scratch tree. It has leaves and they have different colors. It was a cat who scratched it all about!

Linus: It's inside the place but it's not my place because my place is very far away.

Aya:  It's a house. A heart. It's my house. It's raining outside and snows sometimes.

Lyn: I was in my room and my sister was in her room. My father wanted to go to Aldi (supermarket) to shop and then there were two monsters next to the house. The monsters were nice and wanted to get married. The sun war shining and my sister looked out of the window and so did I . The girl monster had a necklace.

Tarja: This is inside the house. There is one circle inside it. There is an umbrella with a very long holder. Here is a 4, that's how old I am. 

I am sending the parcel out today, hope it arrives soon and safe. And our friends in Mexico like our pictures and stories a lot.

Best wishes,
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.

Life is like a movie at The English School in Helsinki!

2016, 6th Grade, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, CanadaArlene TuckerComment

As the first art task of this school year,  the group was asked to imagine what if an animation film was made based on their own life. They planned and drew sketches of the recent experiences they have had. This task just happened to be very similar to Arlene´s first Dear You task. Many combined these two tasks together.

Children seemed to be a bit shy when writing to their new Canadians friends. They had time to write only short notes. However it was nice to see how their motivation grew as they their work progressed.

As a medium they used waterproof markers, transparent copy sheets, class paints + some colourful plastic sheets. Most of the photos were taken against our classroom window.

Many of the pupils have been playing Pokemon Go and that shows! Many images are based on hobbies and other interests of life. Most images are very personal.

Päivi Huhtinen

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

Time to share!

2016, 4th Grade, Dear You Art Workshops, Canada, FinlandArlene TuckerComment

We are ready to share our characters with our partners - Grade 4 friends from V.K. in Vantaa! Their package arrived today and we really enjoyed the art work! I posted their characters on the glass window in our room. I am sending a picture for you to see how beautiful they are.

The kids are excited to draw and write to kids who are far away from their country. There were so many questions about Finland and predictions on the climate. Some of the students really took time to share details from their lives.

I am sending pictures that show the working process and finished art work. It has been a great experience so far and we can't wait for the next art idea!

Together with art,
Dance A. Vasileska

Ryerson PS
Cambridge, Ontario
Canada

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

Small stories and big ideas from Berlin

2016, 4 years old, 5 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Germany, MexicoArlene TuckerComment

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.

Big Bear Smiles from Colegio San Patricio

2016, 6 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Mexico, SingaporeArlene TuckerComment

We read a story about a bear who didn't know why he was made so he asked several animals if they knew their mission. At the end, a girl found him and he realized that his mission was to make the girl happy. The kids chose their favorite character so we then made several animals.

Thanks for everything,
Susana Martinez

Susana Martinez's Prepri D class, aged 6 years old, from Colegio San Patricio in Monterrey, Mexico are making and sharing art with Vega Barathi's Pre-school class at Saraswathy Darma Muneeswaran Kindergarten (SDMKG) in Singapore.

Opening mail!

2016, 3 years old, 4 years old, Singapore, Pre-School, MexicoArlene TuckerComment

Our children enjoyed opening their mails. They loved them. We took out the crafts and placed them in individual envelopes and dropped them into the children's mail boxes.

With love,
Ms Rachel

Nursery 2A and Nursery 2B, 3-4 year olds at 215 EtonHouse Bi-Lingual Preschool in Singapore are making and sharing art with the 4 year olds from Nursery B at Colegio San Patricio in Monterrey, Mexico.

Espoon kuvataidekoulu creates with their new friends!

2016, 6 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, Mexico, Pre-School, TeachingArlene TuckerComment

The 6 year old artist at Espoon kuvataidekoulu were very excited to find out that they have friends in Mexico!  We looked on the map where Mexico is and when we looked at pictures we saw that it seems very hot and dry climate. We already have so many questions!

What language do you speak?
Is it fun in Mexico?
What about the houses and buildings in Monterrey? What are they like?

Our artworks continued from character drawings we have been creating.  We have characters that are self-portraits, from Pikachu, and from our imagination.

Thank you and we look forward to meeting you!

With love,
Arlene, Eliisa, and artists from Espoo Visual Arts School

The 6 year old artists from Espoon kuvataidekoulu in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with Prepri A, the group of 6 year old artists from San Patricio Colegio in Monterrey, Mexico.

The artists in Mexico inspire creativity for their friends in South Africa!

2016, 4 years old, 3 years old, Mexico, South AfricaArlene TuckerComment

The children opened the Dear You Art Project which we received all the way from Mexico today. The children loved it - thanks so much. We read the Hungry Caterpillar to the Toddlers today and we are off to the Library to get an Elmer the Elephant book to read to the older class on Monday 

Kind regards,
Oakdale Montessori

The 3-4 year old artists at Oakdale Montessori Preschool in Cape Town, South Africa are making and sharing art with the 4 year old artists at San Patricio Colegio in Monterrey, Mexico.

VK 4A Lights, Camera, Action!

2016, 4th Grade, Dear You Art Workshops, Dear You Workshop Leader, Finland, CanadaArlene TuckerComment

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.

Contrasting colours and bringing friends together

2016, 4th Grade, 9 years old, 10 years old, Canada, MexicoArlene TuckerComment

This is my first year participating in a global art project. It is amazing to work at such a distance. The kids learned about stained glass being a decorative design made from pieces of glass in a different colour (contrasting colour). We emphasized the importance of the ''black lines" that separate the pieces creating a mosaic.

Today we just created pieces of stained glass using parchment paper. We discussed our favourite characters and the kids will pick and begin working on their sketches this week. I am sending few pictures for you to see our work.

There are great discussions going on while picking their characters. What a great time in the classroom.

Thank You!!!!!
Dance Agapieva-Vasileska

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

Furry and cuddly reflections from Munich

2016, 4 years old, 5 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Germany, MexicoArlene TuckerComment

Prior to receiving the project description, I was nervous about the supplies the project would need and if it would be age/ language appropriate. While most of the children I work with have at least a basic understanding of English, there are several that have no common language with the class, meaning that they speak neither English nor German. Therefore, class projects must be visually based to maintain accessibility. And even though Munich is a major city, simple supplies, like contact paper, can be difficult to obtain.

The project, “Light, Camera, Action” exceeded my expectations. It was specific without being restrictive and easy to incorporate into the previously scheduled classroom activities.

The current topic for our class is animals. We recently concluded our discussion on animals of the sea and were moving into land animals when we received the topic. We directed the conversation specifically to pets and asked the children to name all the different types of pets people keep. Many of the children do not actually have pets, so we asked them which kind of pet they would like. We then discussed the personalities their animals would have.

The kindergarten has two rabbits that are “everyone’s pets” but the children decided that rabbits are outside animals and would not make good pets.

To incorporate the use of light into to project, I showed the children pictures of stained glass portraits some people make of their favorite animals. The result was our version of stained glass, depicting cats, dogs, birds, and fish. They helped pack their artwork in a large envelope and are excited for their new friends in Mexico to see them. And they can’t wait to see what the other children created. 

Hallie Barrows
Munich German

The 4-5 year old artists at Elly und Stoffl kindergarten in Munich, Germany are making and sharing art with the 4-5 year olds in Kinder D at Colegio San Patricio in Monterrey, Mexico. 

Colors of Us at EtonHouse in Singapore

2016, 3 years old, 4 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Mexico, SingaporeArlene TuckerComment

The Art experience was wonderful. One child, whom I worked with lastly made a stunning picture. She chose to trace a picture from the book, 'Colours of Us'. She selected a picture of a dark woman who wore lovely jewels. The child traced the picture carefully. I guided her verbally, showing herareas which she overlooked on tracing, e.g. side of the face, pupils, contours etc. After tracing she decided on the colours of the tissue to be affixed. Pre-cut tissues which could be cropped further were provided. She chose yellow and carefully affixed them on the face. When I gave her a pink paper, she said that it was too big and cut it smaller to be affixed as a hairband. When she felt that she was done, she turned over the art piece at looked at it with amazement...I was surprised too. I asked her if she would like to use the marker to colour the little details. She accepted my suggestion readily and coloured the nails and jewels. It was awesome. Her friends who saw her picture asked if they could do one too. They were inspired.

The Art experience contained a surprise element...as children would only be able to see the big picture after finishing their work. It exhibited the child's personality when she selected her desired colours and shapes of tissue. The size of the picture e.g. the large face gave the child a bigger space to work on. This experience was a confidence booster for this child who often felt that she could not make beautiful picture like her older sister who was apparently able to create lovely pictures. I had another child who felt unhappy about issues with the size of the tissue papers and felt that it could not be cut to her desired shape and size to make the right fit. As such she prefered to use the marker which she could confidently colour within the boundaries.

Children should be given the opportunity to work with both large and small sized pictures creatively rather than comparing which might be better. They can work with their desired combination of colours to suit their taste as such they need time to think and work with different colour combinations. Exploring their work with a wide variety of light sources is something we were unable to do due to other work commitments at school. We observed our work on the light table which gave them a different appearance. When I photocopied the pictures they looked different too. We could have tried observing the pictures on the wall being reflected by a torch light or even on projector.  

Now children are interested in tracing faces... tracing a real image of a photo poses challenges which are different from cartoon pictures with definate lines or borders. We tried it at school. It was a different learning experience.

Sincerely,
Ms Rachel

Nursery 2A and Nursery 2B, 3-4 year olds at 215 EtonHouse Bi-Lingual Preschool in Singapore are making and sharing art with the 4 year olds from Nursery B at Colegio San Patricio in Monterrey, Mexico.

South African artists swim their way to Mexico with Nemo!

2016, 3 years old, 4 years old, 5 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Mexico, Pre-School, South AfricaArlene TuckerComment

We introduced the Dear Art project to the Toddlers during circle and explained that our art is going to another school very far away in Mexico. In a few weeks’ time we will get the Mexico’s school art projects sent to us. Img0087 is the Toddler teacher showing the children where the other school is in relation to our school. The Toddlers used a fish theme as the average age in the class is only 2.5 years. We explained the theme as light, camera, action we asked the class what the favourite movie was and the children all said “finding Nemo”. As the class is very young we asked the class to colour in and decorate the fish to what they wanted it to look like. We asked them to close their eyes and think of their favourite colours. Each picture is the Children's own interruption of Nemo.

I introduced the theme to the older class also during circle time and also spoke about Light, Camera, Action. The children then decided to take shapes and use laminating pouches to colour in the shape in between the sleeve and then we laminated them to represent stained glass windows 

Kind Regards,
Rebecca

The Toddler and Pre-school groups from Oakdale Preschool in Cape Town, South Africa are making and sharing art with Nursery C and Kinder C classes from Colegio San Patricio in Monterrey, Mexico.

Documenting our journey from Monterrey to the rest of the world!

2016, 4 years old, 5 years old, 6 years old, Dear You Workshop Leader, Mexico, TeachingArlene TuckerComment
Our artworks were shipped today!  I would like you to share with your students the whole experience so they can imagine what happens when you send an envelope to a far away land.  The project will also include "community workers".

Maria Elena Gonzalez, Preschool Principal at Colegio San Patricio in Monterrey, Mexico had the great idea to create a platform for her teachers to share the knowledge and extend the learning experience for their students.

The Nursery and Prep classes at Colegio San Patricio are making and sharing art with schools in Germany, UK, Finland, and Singapore.

K2B class reads Elmer the Elephant Story!

2016, 4 years old, 5 years old, Collage, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, MexicoArlene TuckerComment

Dear friends from K1,

I´m so excited hearing from you! 

Tomorrow I will read your letter to my students, they will get excited too!!

We really enjoyed making this project, my students got so happy when they first listened about the project, we did the same as you did, we found on the internet where Finland is on the map, they got surprise to see how far we are from each other, also we looked some pictures that we found on google of your school, they couldn't wait to sent the project to you!

We read Elmer the elephant story, they loved it, so our character is Elmer, you will receive many different elephants, we hope you like it too!! 

My student will be very happy to see all your projects, because guess what!! they love Frozen, Dora, Spiderman, Pokemon and all the characters you mention too!! 

When we made our projects we were celebrating Mexico´s Independence day! So if you can see in the pictures some of them were wearing Mexican clothes to commemorate this day.

Is nice to hear that you had a sunny day when you made the project, right now here in Monterrey is very hot!!

We sent a big hug to everybody!!

We are so excited keeping in touch with you!!

With lots of love,
Ms. Gaby, Ms. Kasandra and all K2B class!!

Elmer the Patchwork Elephant is a children's picture book series by the British author David McKee.

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

K1 and all their charismatic characters!

2016, 4 years old, 5 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, MexicoArlene TuckerComment

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.

Excitement at EtonHouse!

2016, 4 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Pre-School, Mexico, 3 years oldArlene TuckerComment

Our children are excited to send mails to your children. They asked, " Ms Rachel, Are you saying that we are going to receive mails from the children in Mexico?!" When I said, 'Yes!', they jumped with joy. Sharing an art work is a excellent idea. 

In fact we had a show and tell with all the children about their mailboxes and they all gave unique descriptions. The Lights, Camera, Action! Dear You Art Project was well received by the children. The sticky contact papers often got stuck together and had to be pulled apart. Children were exploring with the materials. Perhaps after the project, I will suggest an open-ended experience with the materials that you suggested. Most of them enjoyed tracing the pictures while others decided to draw the pictures on their own. A child was very focused and wanted to use specific coloured tissue papers for specific part of the drawing and was concerned when the tissue paper couldn't be cut into the exact shape and size. Another child preferred to use the markers alone with the contact paper.

Exploring the unique properties of the materials would be my next objective. We haven't used it with torch or the projector or paint. We will do more later.

The children shared that they have to go to the Airport to send their mails since the mails have to take the flight just like us. Interesting! Looks like we have to do an inquiry on how mails travel around the world.

The children will do a show and tell upon completion and experience light effects on the Art pieces.

Today we also did a Mexican dance at school. It was fun.

Thank you again!

Love,
Rachel

Post Box Central at 215 EtonHouse Bilingual Pre-School in Singapore

2016, 4 years old, Singapore, 3 years oldArlene TuckerComment

Last week Ms Rachel had this great idea that the kids make their own mail box at home and bring it for show and tell this week. So when the kids receive their mail from their friends in Mexico each one of them will have it put by the teacher in their mail box. She has informed me that there are quite a lot of interesting looking ones. 

Below are pictures of some of the mail boxes made by our children at home with the aid of their parents.

Regards,
Ms Pema and Ms Rachel

Nursery 2A and Nursery 2B, 3-4 year olds at 215 Eton House Bi-Lingual Preschool in Singapore are making and sharing art with the 4 year olds from Nursery B at Colegio San Patricio in Monterrey, Mexico.