Mail Art + Pen Friends = Dear You Art Project
Look what came today! The kids were very excited to check it all out! And were very intrigued with their inventions!
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!!
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.
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!!
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!
Hooray! We got a school in India and we sent our 2 projects today, we look forward to see our friends’ work in India.
Children were surprised to see the Pop-up cards and when we introduced them that they will make their own places for their puppets which they did before, they immediately start to think and ask questions about it. Some of the children wanted to choose 1 or 2 different house(s) and did their own decoration for the place. Some of them remembered that they made an animal as an imaginary friend so they preferred to do designed it by drawing the animal houses and the details.
We enjoyed making pop-up places for our imaginary friends and we hope you’ll like them as much as we do!
We wish you a “Happy New Year”.
Warm regards,
Dynamic Dinosaurs.
he 4-5 year old Dynamic Dinosaur artists from Açı Preschool in Istanbul, Turkey are making and sharing art with the young artists from Praxis Foundation in Mysore, India.
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.
One great thing about making and sharing art is that is brings out the inquisitive side in us. We can surely see that it has for the Monkeys at Your School in Espoo, Finland. During the November project, Shared Atmosphere, so many questions came up about our friends at Moonstone Preschool in Philadelphia, USA.
The Monkeys would like to know from the Full Moonstoners:
Is your country nice?
What is your favorite food that you get in school?
What are you favorite colors?
How much do you like to be in school?
Do you like our pictures?
Can you write something about your picture?
How cold is it in Philadelphia?
What do you like about your school?
What are your teacher's names and are they nice to you?
How big is Philadelphia?
Do you get any free play?
These questions came up whilst we were painting our atmosphere. We got into smaller groups and divided our landscape into ocean life and land and air. You'll find all animals, vegetation, and ways of getting from Helsinki to Philadelphia!
Thanks for sharing with us!
With love,
Arlene and The Monkeys
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!!
It's amazing how the Tigers can turn a simple rectangle into a super fun play house! We had so much fun making our pop-up homes for our new puppets that our friends in Vietnam made for us. Now our friends have a place to stay in their new cozy home in Finland!
We first looked at the puppets the Puppies in Vietnam made for us and then created homes that we though would be nice for them. What an inspiration!
Thank you and we look forward to receiving your homes.
Warm hugs,
Arlene & The Tigers
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
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 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.
Ask the Monkeys for some travel advice and they will offer every kind of possibility! From buses to trains to rockets. This all came about when we were figuring out how our Imagine Me puppets are going to reach our new friends at Moonstone Preschool in Philadelphia, USA. Finland is quite a ways from there, but we are up for an adventure!
As we were creating our puppets we thought about what makes a good friend and here are some things the Monkeys said about their imaginative artworks. Meet Seek. Seek is a good friend because "he helps me when I need help," says J. N's puppet's name is Elsa. "She's a good friend because she's nice to me." I's Stella is "fun and playing with everybody. Listening to the teacher and doing everything herself." E called her friend Rosey. "Rosey is nice. She helps me get the way out." A's puppet Super Savior "saves me when I'm in danger!" M's puppet is a boat named Oh No. When I asked M why Oh No is a good friend, she said, "She makes me laugh." I think that's one of the most important characteristics a friend should have too!
Thanks for the lovely afternoon, Monkeys!
With love,
Arlene
The Monkeys (6 years old) from Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with the Full Moons (5 years old) from Moonstone Preschool in Philadelphia, USA.
If you haven't read The Very Hungry Caterpillar, then I'm sure after you see these comics inspired by Eric Carle's book, you will want to! The artists from Moonstone Preschool in Philadelphia, USA did a wonderful job! Their friends at The International School of Antwerp will have some summer fun reading to do :).
Here are some pictures of the sun catchers the artists in Berlin made.
Lusine Boyajyan, the teacher of the 5 year old artists at Kita Felix and Friends said, "We had a great sunny day and the kids were happy to explore the light and drawn pictures, the shadow of fingers behind the transparent paper...was a lot of fun :-)"
These artworks will brighten up Ahja's artists' day!
The Tigers impressed me so much not only with their comic strips, but how they can clearly show emotions in their drawn characters! We first made some character studies from one of the characters in their character. For example, since Paavo was the main character in his comic he decided to do a character study of himself. He drew what he looks like happy, sad, nervous, and even drew himself as if he was going to explode from an oversupply of energy!
Everybody did a wonderful job! The Mice in Vietnam will enjoy reading these during their summer holiday too!
Evelyn Müürsepp, artist and workshop leader, gives great tips on how to make a successful comic workshop. It seems that her group of 5 year old in Estonia are natural comic artists. I'm sure their friends in Berlin will enjoy reading their stories!
Evelyn said,
It was a really good experience and I loved seeing how intuitively kids grabbed the idea and started producing their own stories :-)
I did now know where to start- as I have always struggled myself with visual storytelling- somehow I end up complicating things to fast. This time I just prepared few things and then kids got it from the air.
Things like:
- got couple of 3-4 image comic strip examples from internet (with and without text)
Then asked kids to tell what do they see. Everyone told it their way and then i told the version what was written on "bubbles"- It gave them example that there are many ways to interpret visual story...
- got some comic books for viewing (Just when waiting for start and afterwards when some got their work done earlier they were looking these)
- printed out some ready made comic "boxes"- just in case
- prepared some themes and draw them some examples, themes like: "my expressions", "things I like to do", "my favourite foods", "my dear ones..." Themes seemed to be good just to have (mostly for teachers who were helping to give instructions for youngest ones). 5 year olds started immediately making their own, pretty complicated 3-6 image stories. It was interesting to see how kids who do not read yet follow the story line. It is not from left to right, but seemed to be that starting image was in center and then story was kind of evolving around that image- it never followed the same path, but went one way in the beginning and for next round just image sequence switched and story could go on like that forever- ie story wasn't linear, it was spiraling :-)
I do not know about others, but for me it was great lesson and I really enjoyed it, so seemed the children and teachers (they were actually also surprised how well kids got the idea and how creatively they interpreted it)
These profile self-portraits are like a mirror image of the artist! The Tigers did a wonderful job with their Light Works and had fun experimenting with this new technique.
Wow! Aleksi did a spot on job recreating his hair! His self-portrait had equally spiky and spunky hair as in real life. Nachu said she was trying to draw her skin color. Jonatan had a wonderful revelation when he put the yellow gel over the blue picture. He realized that blue + yellow = green. I'm happy that everybody had fun :).
Now for our Mice, we wonder what time does the sun set in Vietnam? Sending light to our friends in Hanoi!
Lusine and her 5 year old artists from Berlin had a great time with their Dear You March project! I am sure Evelyn and her artists in Mooste, Estonia will appreciate their watercolor views.
We split the project into two. First the kids made and used their viewfinders to fix images, colors and different combinations. It was interesting to observe that later on when they were asked to put their creativity onto paper, they knew exactly what and how they wanted to paint. In between, they were encouraged to use the view finders again, which they applied from different distances involving other kids to hold the painting or to look through their view finders.
We had a lot of fun and discovered many new things around us.
All the best,
Lusine and Felixers
