Vroom vroom chugga chugga beep beep

It was fun!  The kids made wonderful vehicles.  I think they were very eager about it.  We used color paper, glue, scissors and pencils. 

Many kids adapted the task to their ideas about what kind of vehicles they would like to make.  There was even a human character- vehicle and a sweet princess carriage :).  Some kids followed the instructions, while others improvised.  I had a book about all kinds of transport and I showed it to everybody. 

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.

The Tigers take a closer look at their world

What?! How can that be? Where did that come from? 

Things started to look very different when put under the lens.  The Tigers were explorers and made art inspired from their explorations.  The world may look different after some close inspection : ). 

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.

Tigers make it go!

See that flying car go!
See that monster truck go!
See that transformer go!
See that airplane go!
See that rocket go!
See that flying robot go!
See that walking bus go!

Where are they going to? To Vietnam!

The Tigers at Your School sure do know how to make these move.  We used geometric shapes to sketch out our ideas.  Next step is to make these drawings come to life!  I think the Tigers are a group full of inventors, engineers, mechanics, and definitely creative fun loving people.

With love,
Arlene and The Tigers

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

Dynamic Dinosaurs at Açi Preschool in Turkey share their atmosphere

We are finishing our 1st semester here in Istanbul, Turkey. So we’ve been busy all these weeks but of course children were excited to hear about the new project of Dear You Art Project.

When the teachers informed them about the new project, the children got excited in learning about atmosphere.  Some of the children drew some zig-zag lines, some of them drew curly lines and some of them did their own design on it. They also told many creative stories related to their drawing which were written at the back of their drawing by the teachers. We sent our work to our friends in India and are waiting for their work too! 

We enjoyed making this project and we hope you’ll like it as much as we do!

Take care,
Dynamic Dinosaurs

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

Environment Consciousness Week in our thoughts

As there was Environment Consciousness Week right before the Atmosphere project, children drew air and land, polluted air and clean air. After taping all works together kids did not feel like adding anything.

So long,  enjoy holidays and time!

Best,
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.

Will they walk? or..drive?... or fly?!

The kids, as usual were very eager to start creating their next project. We remembered the amazing things we have made already. First we made a friend, then we had to make a house for that friend, then we needed a place for the house... now, how will our friend get around?

Will they walk? or..drive?... or fly?!
We had many ideas of transport that our imaginary friends could travel by. Cars, trains, buses, trucks, rockets....
I asked the children, so, what makes our things special? whats crazy or different about your train?

"my train is a High speed train!"
"my boat has candy inside!"
"my plane is also a bird!"
"my boat is going to my grandma and grandpa's house!"

So many imaginative ideas, we all had a great time playing with shapes and using our creativity.

Dear friends of Finland, we hope you enjoy our art!

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 is starting a new friendship with the K1 artists at International School of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland. Exciting!! 

We did that?! Woo hoo!

We got a message from Stephanie Giltrap, the teacher of our Dear You friends in Vietnam, that they have made a display of our artworks at their school.  The kids all felt so proud of themselves that they saw their artworks on somebody else's wall.  Amazing!  Next Tuesday we will be Skyping with them and making another project to mail to them on Thursday.  This project titled ‘Let’s Go!’ is about coming up with our own inventions on how to travel to visit our friends in a far away place.  Everything is possible!

Love,
Arlene & K1

K1 is a group of 4 year old artists from International School of Helsinki in Finland.  They are making and exchanging art with the Tigers, a group of 4 year olds from Just Kids School in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Looking towards the horizon in Estonia

Töös osalesid lapsed vanuses 4-5 aastat: 6 poissi. Tööprotsess neile meeldis. Eriti see, et sai valida mitmesuguste pliiatsijoonte vahel, millega pind täita. Vaatasime rühmaaknast välja ja leidsime oma silmapiiri - taevas ja maa. Sellest tulenevalt ka värvid sinine ja roheline. Laste jaoks oli põnev koht, et piltidest kokku tekkis justkui pikk maastik orgude ja kõrgndikega - meie Lõuna-Eesti maastik.

Ja meile õpetajatele, mulle ja Lissile, meeldib lastega kunsti teha ja seda protsessi kõrvalt nautida.

Aitäh meie igapäevaelu rikastamise eest!

Inge

***

Most of kids from our pre-school have viruses, therefore only half of the group is together. 6 boys, aged 4-5 years participated at the project. They loved the process. Specially, that they could choose between different pencil lines with what to fill the surface. We looked out from window and found our horizon- sky and earth. From there the colours: blue and green. It was also interesting for kids that pictures together made long spanning landscape, with valleys and heights- our Southern Estonian landscape. 

And for teachers, to me and Lissi, we love making arts with children and enjoy the process. 

Thank you for enriching our everyday life!

Inge

Thanks to Evelyn Müürsepp for the English translation!

Kalinka artists share and care : )

In the last workshop the Siilit group from Kalinka Päiväkoti in Helsinki, Finland made a collective image about their environment. This time we used very simple materials: pencil, eraser and white sheets of paper.

I think they are always eager about the workshops. During the workshop, kids are usually divided into two groups because some speak only Russian and some only Finnish. I think it would be nice to have a Skype call, so that the kids could see who they are sending their works to. Of course, they realize this, but I think it would be nice to see each other too.

The children liked a lot the received mail from their Dear You friends in Mooste, Estonia. I showed them the works of Mooste Preschool's kids.

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 4-5 year old artists in Mooste Preschool in Mooste, Estonia.

The Tigers work together to create a beautiful atmosphere!

Together we connected the dots to draw lines that created a collective piece of art.  We first asked each other, "What can be found in the ocean?" "What can be found on land?" "What can be found in the air?".  From that we let our imaginations go and painted all the possibilities.

Afterwards when we put all of our individual paintings together to make one long Shared Atmosphere, we got out the Pop Up Homes and Puppets that the Puppies in Vietnam had made for us.  We were coming up with some great stories of why our friend lives in their home and how their environment can make them feel happy, sad, or silly!

Thank you, Puppies for making and sharing art with us.  We hope you like our artwork too!

With love,
Arlene and The Tigers

The Tigers from Your School in Espoo, Finland are 4 years old.  They are making and sharing art with the 4 year old Puppies who are artists going to Just Kids School in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Exploring Finland from Vietnam

The children are so excited to begin the next project! They ask me everyday when we will make something new for our friends in Finland. So bringing this project to them brought on a lot of excitement in the classroom.

I started by drawing a person, and a house and then we started talking about what else we can draw. I was met with suggestions of trees, and a sun and many other things from our environment. We then started a discussion about Finland and what the environment looks like there.

I then showed them 2 videos of Finland. We saw the beautiful long summer days and the long, cold winter nights. We were mesmerised by the beautiful northern lights. "I want to travel to Finland!", "I want to LIVE in Finland!".

So then we discussed what we did see in the videos of the Finnish environment. I showed them their next project and they were very eager to begin. Many stars and lots of snow, hot suns and water for boats. I was getting a lot of comments about the environment they were drawing, so, most of the pictures have small descriptions for our new friends to read. We also had the world map up on display for the children to be reminded of. The kids loved finding some of the new countries they are learning about!

We stuck them all together and followed our environment line from end to end. What a beautiful product! 

We hope you enjoy our artwork. It comes with a lot of love!
Teacher Steph, the Tiger Cubs and Puppies.

Below are pictures of the Puppies's Shared Atmosphere collective painting. 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.

Below are pictures of the Tiger Cub's Shared Atmosphere collective painting project. The 4 year old Tiger Cubs at Just Kids are friends with the K1 artists at International School of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland. Exciting!! 

A soft pillow for our sleepy friends

The puppets need a place to stay. How could that look like? Many came up with the idea of a house. We talked about how far away the puppets had to travel to come to us so we put them immediately in bed as they were tired...:-)

The pop up technique was familiar to some of them and they asked for little instructions and worked more independently. It was a fun experience for all of all.

Best regards, 
Lusine

The 4-5 year olds from Kita Felix and Friends in Berlin, Germany are making and sharing art with The Smart Squirrels, a group of 4 year olds from Açı Preschool in Istanbul, Turkey.

K1 paints a beautiful landscape for their friends in Vietnam!

K1 has been talking about life in the Atlantic Ocean these past couple of weeks. This project allowed us to combine all the great things about life on land and life in the water! Originally I thought we would use oil pastels and colored pencils, but as I was explaining to them that this painting was about the ocean, they suggested we use watercolor paints. How perfect! So we got them out and added them to the mix!

Before we got began we first looked at the Pop Up Homes the Tiger Pups in Vietnam made for us. That started churning the imagination wheels in our mind for our landscape. After we finished our individual paintings of land and water we taped them together to make one super long Shared Environment. Now we have received the Imagine Me Puppets, Pop Up Homes, and soon we'll have the Shared Environments from Hanoi. Our world is piecing itself together and our Tiger Pups are getting insight as to who we are what our lives are like way far up North : ).

Thank you everybody for going on an adventure with us!

With love,
K1, Arlene, Kristiina, and Bibiana

The 4 year olds from International School of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with the 4 year olds from Just Kids in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Super Imaginary Me Puppets from the Smart Squirrels !

We are very excited to join in DearYou Project as the teachers, so do children :). 

When the teachers introduced the Project from the website of “DearYou” Project, they got excited and wanted to start quickly. They were happy to create their imaginary friend and talk about the features and the abilities they have. They used art materials and their own drawing to finish their work.

We hope you’ll like the products as much as we do.

Warm regards,
Smart Squirrels

To see more of The Smart Squirrels Imagine Me puppets, please click here.

The Smart Squirrels are a group of 4 year olds from Açı Preschool in Istanbul, Turkey. They are making and sharing art with the 4 year olds from Kita Felix and Friends in Berlin, Germany.

K1 Pop Up Homes from Helsinki to Hanoi!

Oh my what an inspiration the Tiger Cubs' puppets are!  We first had a good long look and conversation about our new puppet friends and tried to think about what kind of home they would like to live in. Of course, we want them to feel comfortable in Helsinki!  

First I showed them how to implement some easy pop-up bookmaking techniques to build the house. The got it so fast that we went straight into making our homes! 

S put a spiderman bed inside and has a cabbage waiting for him on the table.
Dsri made a treehouse that is a castle.
F put herself inside the home so that her friend always has somebody to play with.
M said that his puppet, Mr. Dinosaur, is thinking about the pyramid and waddles like a penguin.
AR said, "it's windy and that the snow is coming in."
R said, "Mummy, Daddy, Baby Reya (as a grown up) have strong muscles. They are eating sausages in the house."
AN made a cozy bed for baby and daddy.
W made a garden for the outside for his rocket house.
J made his home in India so that Spider Man can walking around with his friends.
KAU made a chocolate cake for his new friend to eat!
AA made his home for Mr. Banana.
D's home is for the bear family.

We had so much fun making these homes and can't wait to see what our friends have come up with! We hope you like them too.

With love,
K1, Arlene, Lydia, and Bibiana

The Siili Group create pop up castles!

The Siili group at Päiväkoti Kalinka made their pop-up books about their favorite places. I think that this task was somehow more tangible for them. The imaginative friend task was somehow much harder for the 4-5-year-old group.

I did an example pop-up book and maybe that is why they could relate to this task much easier. Actually, they really loved it. Some kids made the same pop-up like mine. The fairytale castle was inspiring. I do not know should I make any examples anymore since kids tend to like them and then copy instead that they would to something from their imagination. On the other hand, maybe some of them do not have any tools to start with the creative work and for them the examples are necessary. We used all kinds of color paper, color pens and scissors and glue.

Best,
Kristina

The Siili 4-5 year olds at Päiväkoti Kalinka in Helsinki, Finland are exchanging artwork with the 4-5 year olds at Mooste Preschool in Mooste, Estonia.

Moi Moi Tiger Cubs!

We had the wonderful time Skyping with our friends, Tiger Cubs, in Vietnam. Last month they had made some imaginary friend puppets and posted them to us. The children really engaged in the skype call, thinking of excellent questions to ask their new friends:

A asked, ‘What are your names? Do you like candy?’
Aa asked, ‘Where do you live?’
Dsri asked, ‘Is it hot in Vietnam?’
J asked, ‘Do you play spiderman games?’
W asked, ‘Do you like cake?’ (To this they answered ‘YEEEAAAAHH! we love cake’)
F asked, ‘We have kind and helpful hands, do you?’

They asked us how we say hello in Finnish and what the weather was like here today.  We found out that it's warm in Vietnam! And that it's afternoon in Hanoi whereas it was morning in Helsinki. What?! Wow!

Dsri told them that the leaves were falling here so we showed them what it looks like outside of our window. K and A explained how to play the police game. It seems that the Tiger Cubs also like to play the police game! They wondered if we like the minions and told us what they would be dressing up as for halloween! We realised that we have so much in common :).

Soon it will be Halloween! We talked about what we will dress up as. We can't wait to see your costumes, Tiger Cubs!

With love,
K1, Arlene, Lydia, and Bibiana

Imagining our friends

I asked to try to imagine a friend. Imaginative friend could be a person or an animal. The materials for the workshop were old magazines, paper, crayons and glue. Since my son is in the same group, almost all kids new me already so they were not shy and asked me many questions. Some kids needed more guidance than others. After everyone was done with their work I placed all the imaginative friend images on the floor and invited all the kids to come and see their work together. I told them that these images will be sent to another group which, by the way, has the same name: Siilit.

All best,
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 4-5 year old artists in Mooste Preschool in Mooste, Estonia.

The artists from Hanoi create warm homes for their friends!

The kids were so excited to begin our second art project for our new friends in Finland!

We started by discussing our imaginary friend puppets that we made... and they were so so lovely...but there was one small problem. Where were they to live when they arrived in Finland?? Oh dear! We better get onto this straight away!

So we had a small discussion about what our friends house might look like and where they might live.. Little Ong said her imaginary friend lives in Finland, we had friends living in tall buildings, in cars, in airplanes and even underwater! Phuong Linh remembered her Mermaid friend, who of course, lives in a palace under the sea!

I showed them all a demonstration that I had made, they were all so excited that they were soon to be making their own! Then we went step by step over the project. Talking about tall buildings need bigger cuts up the paper, but small things only need a small cut.

Soon enough we were at our tables, and imaginations and creativity were flowing! we had tall buildings, houses, fish, minions, hearts, trees and more! They were so proud of their creations that they carried them around the classroom while they tidied up!

We are sure our friends in Finland are going to love them!

With love, Teacher Steph, the Tiger Cubs and the Puppies from Ha Noi, Vietnam.

Here are some artworks of the Tiger Cubs to K1 artists in Helsinki, Finland.

Here are some artworks of the Puppies to the Tigers in Espoo, Finland.

K1 and their adventurous imaginary friends!

What fun K1 had making our Imagine Me puppets for our new friends in Vietnam!  We first looked at the map of the globe and came up with all different ways of how one could travel from Finland to Vietnam. Aashrit was so thoughtful and said we could spend one night in his home in India. India is a bit of a detour from Finland, but we can make it happen!

We then thought about what kind of companion we would like to go on our adventure with. This friend would then be developed into our Imagine Me puppet. From the looks of these artworks, K1 is a creative bunch who are ready an exciting journey! As you can see, collaging came quite naturally for them too.

J made a Micky Mouse bumblebee. 
KS likes to surprise his puppet by saying, "boo!". His friend likes to jump and drive a car.
A said, "this is my happy face!".
S's friend can read everything and do what people can't do like twist his legs, take his hair off and put it back on. Oh, and he has sharp teeth.
Dsri gave hers a purple dress.
W named his friend Mark. Mark likes to read ten-ten books, has a beard, glasses, hands, feet, and is good at running.
F's new friend, Sarah, is happy! She likes running around, jumping, skipping, and puzzles.
AA's friend is named Nosey. Nosey is good at connecting the phones and also playing with legos and cooking.
N's bumblebee transformer can transform fast cars and motorcycles!
M's is called No Name.
K's imaginary friend is a boy.
D created a baby.
R's has a happy face and her name is Happy.
AN's is called Baby Andreas and he likes playing with toys.

We can't wait to meet our new friends from Vietnam!

With love,
K1 artists, Arlene, & Lydia

K1, 4 year old artists from International School of Helsinki in Finland are making and exchanging art with the Tigers, a group of 4 year olds from Just Kids School in Hanoi, Vietnam.