Patterns from Mooste's Preschool

It's a great idea and kids are natural pattern creators. One thing confused them though- namely magnifying classes, I should have left these out and just focused on patterns we can see with our eyes. Otherwise it is too much information packed in 1 project: patterns and magnification and ones skin and masks. Otherwise kids really loved their masks and did not want to send them away, but when i reminded them that they get masks in return from other kids in Finland they agreed.

So cant wait untilyour masks arrive.

Best greets,
Evelyn

Evelyn Müürsepp and her 5-7 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.

Thinking about 'What am I?' with Viertolan Koulu

I have visited Viertolan Koulu to create What Am I? books with two first-grade classes. The main idea was to talk about what our food can tell about us and our environment. During the lively discussion with no right or wrong answers, we thought about what food is accessible to us directly – from the apple tree in our neighbours’ garden, to the carrots our grannies grow in their cottages in Northern Finland. We listed examples of food that comes from here, and discussed whether the lemon growing in a pot on the windowsill can be considered local food.

In order to prepare the art materials for the book, the kids had been asked to bring their own cardboard from home. Looking at the items they brought, we all laughed to see it was mostly cereal boxes – the food that found its way into our diet within just the last decade or two.

I felt it was more exciting to ask questions to discuss the subject of an artwork, and explain the technique very carefully, rather than only give a solid description of what the final piece should look like. At the end, we made an array of beautiful accordion books, asking our friends to guess our favourite dishes such as macaroni bake, bananas, pizza and chocolate. 

Anastasia Artemeva

The 1A artists at Viertolan Koulu in Vantaa, Finland are making and sharing art with the artists at Кепа школу (Kepa School) in Karelia, Russia. The 1B artists at Viertolan Koulu in Vantaa, Finland are making and sharing art with the artists at Sheppard Public School in Ontario, Canada.

Making shapes that move

After morning circle we looked at the works from our Helsinki friends, trying to understand what devices are depicted, how they move and what drives them. The kids got all excited to do their own vehicles. Everyone got a kit of 3 geometric shapes. We looked at them, named them and explored how can a rectangle be turned into a square, diamond into triangles and oval into half circles. The rule was that they can cut these shapes if they want (but only once and by halving them) and they can trade the shapes with their friends and add afterwards details with pens. Most of the kids started excitingly to work.

Markus: tank of Siim, it protects people from the baddies
Lauri: truck what carries miraculous sun sand
Ats: snowplough
Laas: one wheel train. for cat, ferret, mouse and birdies...
Matthias: horse pulls kings car
Mattias: tank what collects firewood for soldiers
Mona: crystal palace and princess bringing crystals
Eliise: estonian train, takes people from one place to another
Lotte-lisandra: flying car travelling to põlva (nearby town), my mummy waving to me because im going to buy her a bracelet
Henri: grandma and grandpa are taking post to avery usual castle
Ode: robot-butterfly is flying from blossom to blossom
Kar-kaarel: carbage truck what carries chocolate
Siim: cumputer tank what can be upgraded

best greetings,
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.

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.

Magic Clouds to Rainbow Machines!

I have felt warmly welcome every time I have been to Viertolan Koulu's 3rd grade class! They are so happy, talented and positive kids and they are lucky to have such a good teacher: Maija Pitko. For a Christmas present I had lovely small concert from kids and Maija!  Also, we had Tatjana Knudsen´s wonderful class in Denmark as our pair in Dear you-project. Thank you for everybody! 

In the Let's Go! project we made inventions of all sorts! Check out the pictures of some of these ingenious ideas!

Eliisa

Soap bubble machine

Soap bubble machine (the pink one)

Rainbow Machine

You can drive through that to Denmark and there is station in the end.

Magic Cloud

Cloud that flies and moves with propellers that are made out of school pencils. You can also have a Christmas tree there!

Game controller

You can move to different places by using it and playing with it. 

Eliisa Sorvali, Dear You Workshop Leader, and 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. 

Let's go to Texas! How are we going to get there?

During our last session in Vantaa, we talked about how far Texas was, and what are different ways we can get there. We discussed how different types  of transport function, what are their essential elements - wings, wheels, steering, motor, etc, and what spaces they need - water, air, road surface. The artists suggested combining several vehicles to make the most efficient and environmentally friendly machines. From the cutout shapes, some with elements made from the leftover paper, the kids made hybrid submarines, steel traveling animals, and a jumping automobile, besides a few Finnair and one Emirates airplanes. Together we added important things like Start and Stop buttons!

Greeting from the Emerald Isle,
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, USA.

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 Inquisitive Monkeys!

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

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.

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.

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 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

I want to be friends with the Puppies from Vietnam and their puppets!

I introduced the project to my students using a map and a world globe. I spent some time explaining to them about their country, Vietnam and my country, Australia. 

I told them that I have some new friends, who are the same age as them and they live in a country called Finland. I told them the name of the class and the name of their school. 

I told them that we are going to make a piece of art and then we are going to put it on an airplane to go to our friends in Finland and then we will also get some art from our friends in Finland! They were so excited!

Our first project was about imaginary friends. We discussed things that are real and things that are not real, that are in our heads. They are from our imagination. We spent some time describing our imaginary friends. Are they tall or short, big or small, do they have wings or maybe they can run very fast. 

I showed them a puppet that I had made. And explained to them that we can make a puppet that is like the friends we can imagine! 

I gave them a small paper bag each and a bunch of other paper and materials to create their puppets. And I left them to it! 

I set up the camera and my laptop and I also involved them in the photo taking process. They loved it. A few of them made friends from their imaginations, others made characters that they love. We even have a minion, and an Incredible Hulk! 

In the next few months we will be learning about our town. So I will take that opportunity to teach them about the post office when we send our artworks. 

The children are so excited to receive their puppets from Finland! 

We also look forward to our second project!!

Thanks a lot. 

Love from Vietnam, 
Steph, the puppies and the tiger cubs.

Below are pictures of the Puppies's Imagine Me puppet! 

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!! 

Below are pictures of the Tiger's Imagine Me puppet! 

The creative buzz at Viertolan koulu

When the students from Maija's class at Viertolan koulu started to draw their ideas of"imaginary friends"  all of them were really quiet and concentrated! Ooh that silence meant creativity was busy! The students were thinking of their friends in Denmark and of how they will react when they get Finnish imaginary friends in the mail!

During the artistic process the students noticed that their idea was developing and changing while they were starting to build their puppets. "Game man" got hair to puppet and one of the puppets even turned out to be a mask and a puppet!

Eliisa

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.

Excitement is in the air!

I introduced the project to my students by showing them the Dear You website. My students were very excited and became even more excited when I told them exactly what their 1st project were.

One of my students said: "Wauw are we really going to mail it to another class, and will they mail to us as well?"

They were so motivated and couldn't wait to get started. I told them what kind of materials they could use and before I could look around my students were already creating their own little imaginary friend. Each and everyone with a unique expression. 

As a teacher it was so nice to watch my students "grow" during the process, and it was even more wonderful to watch them write what kind of superpowers their imaginary friends have.

Right now we are all waiting to receive mail from our new friends in Finland.

My Best,
Tatjana Knudsen

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