Opening packages from Iceland!

The artists in Cape Town, South Africa have received their first package from their new friends in Siglufjarðar, Iceland!

Exploring what a home means to us

We started by asking ourselves what home means to us. Then we went outside and in pairs, pretended we were visiting each other's homes. We described our homes, what they look like, what is outside in our gardens, playground, etc. then we came back in the classroom. We closed our eyes and imagined we were coming home from school. What does our front door look like? Do we live in a villa or apartment building? What is outside our home? We thought about these details and then began by making a drawing of our homes. Half way through class we came together and shared a few drawings. We made positive comments and then added one or two things that we thought could be added to the drawings shown, like the people who live in the home, the number of the house, etc. we also talked about what makes Dubai different from other places. What types of trees do we have (Palm and others), are the shapes of our roofs and villas unique? Then we went back to our seats and added more details. In the second class we reviewed our drawings and used them to help us create the pop up card in color.

Thank you,
Liz

Below are photos of KG2E art works.

KG2E class from Collegiate American School in Dubai, United Arab Emirates are making and sharing art with the Tigers from Your School in Espoo, Finland.

Below are selected artworks from KG2D.

KG2D are making and sharing art with the Monkeys. The young artists are 4-6 years old.

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.

We are larger than life!

Toti, Zeynab and the Tigers were getting ready to create pop ups! They could not wait to show me and their friends in Dubai the dinosaur helmets they made!

We started the workshop with taking a mental journey to our home. What do you we see in the living room? Which couch do we like to snuggle up on? How does that couch feel? After taking a tour we looked closely at different kinds of texture. We then practiced different drawing techniques on how to create texture.  Putting all of our knowledge together we created our pop-up homes that tried to capture what we like the most in the place we feel at peace.

Nit: A chair I use to relax. All my family can sit on it. It's gray, black and white and it's very smooth.

Neh: I have a sofa in my living room I use to relax and watch tv. It's made of hard cushions. I also have an eating chair.

Raf: I have a soft bed with pillows. My home is very colorful.

Vih: I have a gym room in my home where my mommy keeps my cloths. I have a toy dinosaur that is rough and I play with it.

Ume: My home has a seat in the living room. We eat there. Our seat is big. It's cold and icy, it's blue and yellow. We have pictures of stars, moons, and snowflakes.

Pau: This is my sofa. It's in my living room and it's white. It's a little bit hard and it's made of wood.

Adr: In my home there is a sofa in the middle and there are some decorations on the carpet. The sofa has white, red, green and brown decorations on it. The sofa is made of wood and has comfortable cushions.

Dha: This is my home when I was a baby. The sofa was brought by my mom and dad. And while my big sister was at school I always sat on the sofa with my mommy. The sofa is brown. It was soft and comfortable, but now it's a bit old.

Lil: This is my kitchen where I eat food. There are 2 chairs. One is my sister Elle's and the other one is mine. My chair is made out of wood and some soft material.

Ath: Here is my living room. There is a big tv and black curtains. We sit on the ground and chairs. The ground is soft and brown. I like to sit on the ground to watch tv.

Welcome, friends, to our home!

With love,
The Tigers, Arlene, Toti, and Zeynab

The 4-5 year old Tigers from Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing with the 4-6 year olds in KG2E from Collegiate American School in Dubai, U.A.E. 

How many sounds are there?!?!

The children were surprised at how many different sounds there were! Some children said our world is very noisy and that wouldn't it be sad if we couldn't hear. We wondered if our friends in United Arab Emirates would hear the same sounds.

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.

Mapping the sounds from Germany to UAE

As part of the process, the class made a map of sounds!

This project was a bit difficult for me to conceptualize and present in an easy-to-understand manner. Because English is not the mother tongue of most of my kids, I thought they would have a hard time "picturing" what sound looks like. But I did my best and gave the children fingerpaint and let them go wild. 

To my surprise, many of them "got it" and what looked like colorful messes had a logic behind it. One boy in particular, who many describe as older than his 4 years, told me which colors corresponded to the quiet and nosy times of our day at the kindergarten. Pink is quiet, like our lunch time. But our morning circle is blue because it is loud. Green is quiet with some loud times. 

The surface that I gave the children to paint on was plain white paper with a pair of ears on the left and right side. They all recognized the ears and some painted the entire surface with wild abandon, while other concentrated on decorating the ears first and then coloring the empty space between them. 

When all the pieces were finished, I wanted something that would show the thought process of the children individually and the class as a whole. So I decided to create a map of the world and use the children's artwork to create a patchwork of the continents. Each patch was clearly marked with the child's name, so that they could find it on the map. The boy I spoke about earlier applied his color logic to the map and theorized that different areas of the world must be quiet or loud according to the color of the patches used. 

Sound art from Dubai for their friends in Espoo!

First, we watched a video about how our ears receive sound waves. The children had learned already about the 5 senses so we asked ourselves: which of these senses do artists use? Then the students closed their eyes and listened while I made sounds with different items. We tried to draw those sounds using different types of lines. Then we sat outside and listened to the sounds we heard:  birds, planes, cars and trucks, helicopters, children playing, footsteps.

In the second class we talked about the idea of things that happen “earlier” and “later” and spoke about activities we do in these periods. We tried to remember and predict “earlier” and “later” activities and to draw them.

Below are selected artworks from KG2E.

The kids found listening to the sounds outside really fun. Sometimes it was hard to remain quiet and just listen but then we enjoyed the process. What did your kids think about it? Was it challenging? Trying to draw the things that makes sounds from earlier and later periods was a bit tougher for us but we liked thinking about all the things we do outside of school. We drew things like brushing our teeth, playing, eating, and driving in our cars. In Dubai we have to do a lot of driving because the city is big and spread out. We also have big high ways.

What is it like in Helsinki? What animals live there? Do you walk, or take buses or trains to school? What is the weather like? We can sit outside now in shorts and t-shirts in Dubai but soon it will be too hot.

KG2E class from Collegiate American School in Dubai, United Arab Emirates are making and sharing art with the Tigers from Your School in Espoo, Finland. KG2D are making and sharing art with the Monkeys. The young artists are 4-6 years old.

Below are selected artworks from KG2D.

Here now. Feeling silly ; )

Some students could actually hear their heartbeat and their blinking and breathing as we tried it the second time... some just got a bit silly after seeing their "now" drawings.

It was a fun experience, but I think I would have preferred to do it in smaller groups of students, so that they maybe wouldn't be as easily influenced by one or two "silly" students.

To view the Lay of the Land presentation click here.

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.

Sounds around us!

This is how we see the sounds that surround us at different times of the day, month, year, our life. It is interesting to see the children becoming aware of and discovering the surrounding sounds. They talked about sounds they hear at night in their houses. Some of the sounds looked like tornado. They described and wondered about the sound of a falling star. They pictured the sounds at school, the school bus, and the sound of the quiet time before bed to create their triptychs.

Great conversations and lots of fun!

Thank you,
Dance A. Vasileska

Вот так мы видим звуки, которые окружают нас в разное время дня, месяца, года и нашей жизни. Интересно наблюдать, как дети начинают обращать внимание и открывать для себя звуки вокруг. Они говорили о звуках, которые слышат ночью у себя дома. некоторые напоминали торнадо. Они описали и попытались представить себе звук падающей звезды. На триптихах они изобразили звуки в школе, в школьном автобусе и тихие звуки вокруг перед сном. 

Спасибо,
Dance A. Vasileska

The 4th graders from Ryerson Public School in Cambridge, Canada are making and sharing art with the 10 years olds from Kepa School in Karelia, Russia. 

Monkeys in the moment

When I told them that our new friends live in Dubai everybody was so excited!! Some of them had been there and said it was so beautiful and hot! One of them said that their Mom wants to go back. It must be a great place!!

We got straight to making art for our new friends. We wanted to tell them about who we are through the sounds we hear in our daily life. We blindfolded our eyes so that we could focus on the moment and draw what we hear. The other two parts of the triptych depict what we hear at other times of the day.

Niila said, "I heard somebody on a bike."

 Luukas said, "I drew my house and my friends."

Erkka said, "I heard a ghost and my heart. Actually, it was the ghosts' heart.

Elle said, "I heard cats and dogs."

Iulia said, "I heard music and the clouds."

Alma said, "I heard an owl in the night. I also heard the wind."

Noel said, "I heard the wind and the other Monkeys."

Jonathan said, "I heard a tornado, fire, and 19 kids."

We all had a very different experience and that's what's so exciting about the artistic process.  Kasper said that he liked to draw with his eyes closed.  The Monkeys are brave for trying new things!

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

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. 

Ashira heard her heart beating and her friends.

The Tigers are Listening, Drawing, & Sharing

The Tigers are very excited to meet their new friends from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates! They first asked where it is located on the map!  Some of the Tigers have even been to Dubai, but don't remember because they were 3 years old at the time.  But they imagined that it was a great place : ).

After going over where our friends live we talked a bit about different ways to share our space with our new friends. Sharing with our friends what we find in our soundscape, we decided, would be fun to do! Toti and the Tigers were listening to different sounds and paying attention to local sounds earlier in the day as a way to warm up their ears.

We talked about what a triptych is and then made our own.  In the first section of the triptych we used a blindfold and drew to the sounds we heard in the present moment, in the other sections we drew what we heard in the morning and what we will hear in the evening.  This is what we heard and drew:

Misk- I hear the wind in my heart.

Mike said, "I heard life, the wind." When Vihan saw Mike's picture he said that it made him feel like he was in a tornado. How do you feel when you see this picture?

At night time, V hear's that his daddy is tired so he drew a picture of Daddy yawning.

Adn, "Rainbow, rain, trees, gold coins found in the morning.

Arya- It was easier to draw blindfolded. I heard the blood in my body.

Ath- I heard the monkeys.

Lil- I heard my heart beating. Daddy sleeping and snoring.

D- I heard the Monkeys laughing.

R- I heard the wind.

P- I heard birds.

Neha- I heard bells.

U- I was sleeping in my bed and heard raindrops. (I kept my eyes open. I didn't like to close them.)

The Tigers said, "Dear friends, we would like to invite you to Finland! Far and close from us.

With love,
The Tigers, Arlene, Toti, and Zeinab

The 4-5 year old Tigers from Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing with the 4-6 year olds in KG2E from Collegiate American School in Dubai, U.A.E. 

N heard birds in the morning!

Sensing through making art!

I started this project by explaining we were gonna have new art buddies in Dubai and I showed them how far away it is and some pictures of the city and school. 

They got really excited and the project matched our curriculum perfectly since we are learning about senses and habitats. 

I got them to experience different sounds so they could imagine how their creations would look like.

It was funny to hear them say 'I've got it! Mine will be a beach, cause that sound like a wave' and 'That sound gave the idea to make a fairy land, cause that sounds like magic'. 

I enjoyed watching them pay attention to what they were hearing, imagine and create unique pieces of art for our special friends in Dubai. 

xoxo,
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.

Making art by listening to our surroundings

We listened to the silence and very loud noise and made notes.  In the third section, I asked pupils to think about the sound of a place where they feel happy and relaxed.

They all liked the task and concentrated really well.

Päivi

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.