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.

Vienna in autumn looks like a magical place to be!

Hello!

In Vienna, we had autumn when we were doing the pictures. Trees have beautiful colours, apples are falling down, it is getting cold. So the kids made pictures from our season outside. They had a lot of good and funny ideas to show this! :) You will see it in the pictures!

Hope you are all fine!

Best wishes,
Simone

The 7-8 year old artists from  Evangelischen Volksschule am Karlsplatz in Vienna, Austria are making and exchanging art with the 8 years from Mooste Põhikool in Mooste, Estonia.

From Finland to Canada, our atmospheres come together

Here comes a few of the latest artworks. We first practiced with portrait drawings. The landscapes were done in small groups.

This time my pupils were more eager to write letters rather than concentrate on their drawings.

Br,
Päivi Huhtinen

Päivi Huhtinen and her group of 5th graders from The English School in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with Kaarina Losey and her 6th graders at Pioneer Park P.S. in Ontario, Canada.

Sharing our atmosphere!

Our shared atmosphere was fun to do, to connect and share!

First Viertola´s schools 3rd graders from Maija Pitko´s class were standing in their chairs eyes closed and imaging the atmosphere and landscape between Finland and Denmark and flying in their imaginary trip! Then they started painting landscapes and drawing all the important details from their "imaginary trip". I could almost hear the imaginary airplanes and under land diggers!

- Eliisa Sorvali

The 3rd Grade artists from Viertolan Koulu in, Vantaa, Finland are making and sharing art with the 3rd Grade artists from Korsholm Skole in Hinnerup, Denmark. 

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.

Together we make it our world

Our third meeting, where we where making Our Shared Atmosphere went really well. At the beginning we made time to watch the video message we received from our friends at Amy Parks Heath Elementary School in Heath, TX, USA, which was very sweet and encouraging for the kids. Then we spent a few minutes learning how to fold the paper to make the line that will unite our individual works, turning them into a collective art work.

It seemed like a good idea to stick to only using grey pencil, which allowed us to focus on the mark-making techniques and on expressing feelings, sounds, light and shadow. We talked about how some students came to school early and it was dark and rainy, and how one hour later, for other students the walk to school was bright and sunny.

I think our time was managed really well this time. At the end we stuck all the drawings together with tape, to make one reeaaallly long picture of autumn time in Vantaa.

At the workshop we speak both English and Finnish - well, I mostly speak English and Riitta-Liisa translated, to make sure no one is left out.

A xx

Anastasia Artemeva is the Dear You Workshop Leader for the 4th grade class at Viertolan Koulu in Vantaa, Finland.  This group of Finnish artists will be making and sharing art with Kathleen Finan's 4th graders at Heath Amy Parks Heath Elementary School in Heath, Texas.

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.

Play houses from the Tigers

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

The Monkeys welcome you to their fun houses!

The Monkeys from Your School in Espoo, Finland have made amazing homes for their new puppets created by the Full Moons from Moonstone Preschool in Philadelphia, USA.

We had so much fun creating side-by-side with our new friends. We thought what kind of house would they like? What things would make them happy to have in their bedroom? If they got hungry what food should we have for them in the house?

A said, "This is a candy house. It has candy-shaped roof. The whole house can walk!
J said, "This house has eyes and a mouth. It also has a balcony. Riley, the puppet, likes to ride a horse. He is a cowboy!"
S said, "There are some bouncy shoes inside because my friend like to bounce."
E said, "This house has a butterfly and a heart as a decoration. My friend likes the flowerpot on the table."
L said, "This house has five windows. It has a lot of ladders inside because my lazy guy likes to climb."
S said, "There are two lights, toys, ladders inside. It also has a slide."
P said, "It can explode in 3 seconds! It has eyes and it can walk."

Thanks Full Moons for your questions!  Please come visit Helsinki to see our yellow leaves. It's cold here, but we have a nice school to keep you warm.

We can't wait to see the homes you created for us!

With love,
Arlene & The Monkeys

"IMAGINE ME" India and Finland are friends!

 "Imagine a friend, a counterpart to you in far away Finland, Imagine the looks of this friend, the things that she/he likes, where she/he studies, with whom she/he lives, where she/he studies, how she/he spends free time and so on and so forth. Now we need to recreate this FRIEND in the materials provided."

Initially there were questions as to how big the creation should be and depending on the materials we decided to make masks of the FINLAND Friends and improvise on them at a later point in time.    

Project Implementation: Each student paired up with one teacher for assistance and worked on the masks. The discussions during the process of making the masks were quite interesting and revealing the thought processes of children involved. There were a lot of questions about Finland itself, how far it was, how big it was, and was it a cold country? And how tall were people etc, etc,.  As a response to the queries, one teacher browsed the net for information on Finland andshared it with students. Students started to relate the conditions to their own context here and started the project on that note. 

To read the full report on the workshop and to see pictures of the amazing artworks, please click here.

Leena Pascal and her talented group of artists and teachers at Praxis Foundation in Mysore, India are making and sharing art with Eliisa Sorvali and her artists at Annantalo in Helsinki, Finland.

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.

Imagining our puppet self

Greetings from Annantalo, a children's art house in Helsinki Finland!  We are an art class that goes by the name Let´s paint!. We are happy to be part of Dear You art project! 

The children are 9-12 years old and we are meeting every Tuesday. Here are our puppets!

Eliisa Sorvali

Eliisa Sorvali and her group of artists in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with the artists from Praxis School in Mysore, India.

There's a warm spot for everybody

Dear Arlene!

Our post is on the way to Estland!

It was really funny to see what children are producing with the new theme.

There are different places where they feel good. Some of them love to be in nature or with animals, some of them only love to be at home.

But have a look and you will see nice and funny places to be!! :)

Best wishes from Vienna!

Simone Zobl

Simone Zobl and her group of 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.

Hallo from Mooste

Our kids liked the October project immediately. Everyone had fun and the ideas came very quickly.  It was interesting to create a world of Pop-up for our friend!

Aili Vassil

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

Diving into worlds!

We discussed and demonstrated a few different ways that they could get things to be 3D and "pop" from the page. I showed the fold and snip, we talked about tabs of grass they could glue on, and also how they could do an accordion pleat of paper on the back of a shape as well. I did share the video about "Houses" that was posted on Facebook and shared some of the photos Päivi had shared with the entire class, but many were already partway through the project.  My students were very excited, and think that the English class are all much better artists than they are!! :)

I am hoping to set up a display in the library or a glass cabinet of both the places and the puppets when everything arrives.  I'll send photos once I get it organized!

Enjoy your week!
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.

Putting yourself into the Pop Up Home!

Our pop up place project went really well. First we watched a video of the kids opening a packages with Imagine Me! puppets from Heath, Texas. They were really happy and excited! They took whatever puppets they got, so we had to change the pairs according to that. The kids thought that the puppets were much 'cooler' than the ones they sent.

I had the pop up cards pre-cut, I bought large sheets of card from Suomalainen Kirjakauppa and cut them in 4 pieces, each to be around A4 size, and I cut 3 different strips into each. 

I showed how to make a pop up card first anyway, in case kids wanted to make one at home. After I distributed the pre-made cards the kids made collage and drew on them.

They loved the technique. Some made their rooms, and some cut out and drew pictures of nature. We talked about sounds and smells, and how places can change, like if you are in your room and look out of the window. They put pictures of pets there. I loved that some used the actual strips of paper to draw on, not only to stick pictures, for instance one girl painted apartment blocks on them. 

We had a really great time.

A xxx

Anastasia Artemeva is the Dear You Workshop Leader for the 4th grade class at Viertolan Koulu in Vantaa, Finland.  They are making and sharing art with Kathleen Finan's 4th graders at Heath Amy Parks Heath Elementary School in Heath, Texas.

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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.

The Tigers are great artists and friends!

The Tigers have taken the Imagine Me project to a new level!  They were mixing reality and imaginary worlds together making a giant playground for all of us to be together in.

It was great talking with them about their puppets!

K's puppet is Amos.  Amos is a good friend because "he helps me when I am resting."
Ai's puppet is Veeti who "likes to play Viking and Her Factory with."
P's puppet is named Kasper.  "He likes to go on the boat and like trash trucks!"
V says her puppet Akseli likes to fly, play, and cars.
C's puppet is called Mommy <3.

These playful bunch of Imagine Me puppets are in the air to our new friends at Just Kids school in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Thanks for the great afternoon!

Xarlene