The Tigers get creative with their self-portraits!

The Tigers are so happy and excited to have new friends in Kontula!  A place fairly close to where the Tigers live in Espoo!  Since we haven't met our new friends yet, we thought about all the things we would like to share about ourselves with them.  We got into small groups and came up with a very long list of our favorite things!

Joann: bunnies, diamonds, butterfles
Vanessa: ice cream, butterflies, candy
Aapo: puu, sledding, sweets, skating, surfboard, wii, Mario
Erik: candy, ice hockey
Leevi: candy, presents
Achu: babies, scary stuff, ice cream, coffee
Oskari: jäähilejuoma, ice cream, candy, spiders
Cride: candy, ice cream, ice cream drink
Rishita: glasses, little sister, new year, earrings, lips
Arn: dinosaurs, ghost
Olivia: ice cream, candy, shakes (big ones), ice cream drink, penguins, storm
Renu: butterflies, good babies, spider, ice cream

Wow! Do you like these as well?

Then we thought about how to show our long list of favorites in a photograph. This will be our self-portrait. Some Tigers made props to wear or hold in the photograph, some Tigers wanted to act it out in the photograph, and some Tigers wanted to draw and picture and then take a photograph of that. In any case, everybody Tiger came up with their own way of portraying themselves to their new friends.

We hope you like our self-portraits!

Sincereley,
Arlene, Floriin, Anna-Maria & The Tigers

The 5 year old artists at Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with the 5 year old artists from Päiväkoti Pihapirtti in Helsinki, Finland.

Through photography, The Monkeys tell about themselves

The Monkeys were very happy to hear that they have new friends in Kontula! They got even more excited when they found out that they will get to meet their new friends in May after making and sharing art with them for a few months.

Since this is the first artwork in the series, we thought long and hard about what we would like to share with our new friends.  Everybody chose things they like to do, things they are interested in or shared traits about themselves:

Adripto: cabin crew (I like to help)
Neha: dancing and drawing
D: drawing
Pauli: hockey
Pranav: skating and playing with friends
Aryan: I like flying on airplanes
Aleksi: hockey
Vika: drawing
Aliah: I would like to show them how I draw
Rafael: I like how to play Kimbu with my friends
Nithila: I like to draw and I want to show it to them
Miriam: I want to show how I make snowflakes
Kinshuk: I want to show them how I play with legos
Miska: I want to show how slow I am
Miro: Playing with my soft toys
Umer: I want to show how fast humans are
Mikael: I like building castles

Once we got into the project we wanted to share even more things with you! Umer said, "We have some powers to teach you."

The Monkeys said that they liked taking the photo and also liked pretending for the photo. We hope you did too!

Sincerely,
Arlene, Sanna, Ben & The Monkeys

The 6 year old artists at Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with the 6 year old artists from Päiväkoti Pihapirtti in Helsinki, Finland.

Luovat eskarilaiset, Kanelit -ryhmä

(English below)
Eskariryhmässä on 15 lasta, iältään kaikki ovat tällä hetkellä 6 –vuotiaita. Ensimmäisellä kerralla lapsilta kysyttiin, mitä he haluavat kertoa itsestään tai mistä he tykkäävät ( 3 asiaa ). Sen jälkeen he saivat valita jonkin heille mieluisan asian, josta otettiin valokuva.

Esikouluryhmä Kaneleiden lasten ajatuksia itsestään ja siitä, mistä he tykkäävät eniten ( 3 asiaa ):

S; Mä tykkään hevosista, sota- ja rosvoleikeistä.
A; Mä tykkään mustekalasta, poliisi- ja rosvoleikeistä, Spiderman ja Superman vaatteista.
Sh; Mä tykkään kissoista, seistä päälläni ja värittää paljon.
Lu; Mä tykkään hevosista, kissoista ja värittää paljon.
To; Mä oon mustekala ja mun lempieläin on mustekala. Mä tykkään koirauinnista ja päällä seisonnasta.
La; Mä tykkään leikkiä palikoilla, koiraleikeistä ja tykkään leikkiä Pokemoneilla.
El; Mä tykkään leikkiä palikoilla Laurin kanssa, simpukoista ja meritähdistä sekä apinoista.
Le; Mä tykkään poneista sekä tehdä hamahelmiä, lumipalloja ja lumienkeleitä.
Lun; Mä haluun leikkiä ulkona, mennä Hoplopiin, tehdä sirkusta ja piirtää.
Ma; Tykkään perhosista sekä mennä ulos ja tehdä lumiukkoja.
Z; Tykkään mennä Hoplopiin, Lampipuistoon, olla ulkona ja leikkiä Terhin kanssa.
Te; Tykkään apinoista sekä tehdä kärrynpyöriä ja harrastaa jumppaa.
Ay; Tykkään päällä seisomisesta, siltakaadosta ja kärrynpyöristä.

+++

There are 15 children in the kindergarten group and all of them are currently 6 years old. In the workshop, the children were asked to tell something about themselves. For example, what are three things they like. After that, they chose one of their favorite things and figured out how to turn it into a self-portrait in photographic form.

Here are the children's answers;
Su; I like horses, playing war and robbers kind of games.
Al; I like the octopus, playing police and crime games, Spiderman and Superman's clothes.
Sh; I like cats, stand on the top of my head and coloring a lot.
Lu; I like horses, cats and lots of color.
To; I am an octopus and my favorite animal is an octopus. I like doggie paddling and making headstands.
La; I like to play with blocks, doggie paddling and I like playing with Pokemon.
El; I like to play blocks with Lauri, seashells, starfish and monkeys.
Le; I like ponies and to make hama beads, snowballs and snow angels.
Lun; I want to play outdoors, go to Hoplop, and to make a circus and draw.
Ma; I like butterflies and to go out to make snow angels.
Za; I like to go to Hoplop, Lampipuisto, and to go out to play with Terhi.
Te; I like monkeys, making cartwheels and going to the gym.
Ay; I like making headstands, making a bridge, and doing cartwheels.

The 6 year old artists at Päiväkoti Pihapirtti in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with the 6 year old artists from Your School in Espoo, Finland.

In winter 2018 Dear You project in Kontula is supported by the Museum of Impossible Forms.

Mantelit ja Pippurit tekevät taidetta!

(English below)
Viisivuotiaiden ryhmässä on lapsia kahdesta eri ryhmästä Manteleista ja Pippureista. Meistä on mukavaa, että voimme tehdä yhdessä tätä projektia. Ensimmäisellä kerralla lapsilta kysyttiin, mitä he haluavat kertoa itsestään tai mistä he tykkäävät: ”Kerro kolme itsellesi mieluisinta asiaa”. Sen jälkeen lapset saivat valita yhden heille mieluisan asian, josta otettiin valokuva.

Tässä lasten vastauksia:
Hamza: Jäätelö, karkit ja suklaa – myös paloautoilla leikkiminen on kivaa.
Laura: Piirtäminen & maalaaminen, keiton keittäminen, halit
Jasmin: Istuminen, äidin kanssa kaupassa käyminen, Danielin kanssa leikkiminen
Matvei: Elisein kanssa leikkiminen
Marva: leikkikaverit, lääkärileikki, poliisileikki, barbit
Adna: kaverit, palikat & palapelit, ponit
Amina: maalaaminen, piirtämineen, nukkekotileikki
Noor: kaverit, heppa-leikit, piilosta
Alniz: hevoset, kaverit, linnat

yt. Teija ja Satu

+++

The group of five-year-olds is a combination of two different groups; the Almonds and the Gingerbreads. We are delighted to be able to do this project together. During the first workshop, the children were asked to say something about themselves or what they like: "Tell three positive things about yourself". After that, the children were allowed to choose one of them, a nice character from from which they created a photographic self-portrait. The children took the pictures themselves!

Here are the children's responses:
Hamza: Ice cream, candy and chocolate - even playing with fire engines is fun.
Laura: Drawing & painting, making soup, hugs
Jasmin: Sitting, going with Mom to the shop, playing with Daniel
Matvei: Playing with Elise
Marva: playmates, playing doctor, police games, barbies
Adna: friends, bricks & puzzles, ponies
Amina: painting, drawing, playing with the doll house
Noor: friends, playing with horses, hiding games
Alniz: horses, friends, castles

Sincerely,
Teija and Satu

The 5 year old artists at Päiväkoti Pihapirtti in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with the 5 year old artists from Your School in Espoo, Finland.

In winter 2018 Dear You project in Kontula is supported by the Museum of Impossible Forms.

Weaving their way to friendship

Through weaving, the artists in China have been exploring how chance can be an element in their artwork. By using recycled newspapers and colored papers, the weaving has helped give a hand in creating a story. The artists then wrote words on the artworks to enhance the meaning of the images made from the weaving process.

Everybody seemed to enjoy the art technique and made wonderful artworks!

The 13 year old artists at Shenzhen High School in Shenzhen, China are making and sharing with 7c, 13 year olds, from Helsingin yhteislyseo in Helsinki, Finland.

The Monkeys and their epic stories

The Monkeys did an amazing job working together to create their stories! They thought about the characters in the story, what the main idea of the story would be about, and then how the story would begin, progress, and then end.

Another great part of this Inspiring Stories project is that we first looked at the artworks from our friends in Australia to gain inspiration. So you could say, K/1HT had a helping hand and was an important part of this creative process! We inspire each other!

TheMonkeys #DearYou #InspiringStories #YourSchool #Espoo #Finland #Arlene

TheMonkeys #DearYou #Espoo #Finland #YourSchool #InspiringStories

Thank you K/1HT for being such great friends to us! We love your artworks and hope you like ours as well!  Wishing you a great 2018!!

With love,
Arlene & The Monkeys

The Monkeys from Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with K/1HT class from Bulli Public School in Bulli, Australia. All artists are 5-6 years old.

These are pictures The Monkeys drew as they listened to the story, The War of the Animals.

Listen to the Tigers tell 'Joulupukki goes to India' and 'The Ice Cream Story 1'!

Who wouldn't be in the creative mood with the smell and looks of these delicious handmade gingerbread cookies?!?! With these in the air of the Tiger's room, we got straight to making the art work for our Full Moon friends in Philadelphia!

We started by looking at all of the artworks they mailed us. This gave us inspiration for our stories. We got into two groups and worked together to come up with characters and an amazing story line. Have a listen!

Tigers #Espoo #Finland #InspiringStories #DearYou #YourSchool

These artists create and told the story of Joulupukki goes to India! ps. Joulupukki means Santa Claus in Finnish :). 

InspiringStories #Tigers #YourSchool #Espoo #Finland #DearYou

Jumping with joy, the artists of The Ice Cream Story 1 say woo hoo!!

The Tigers are so grateful and happy they had this time to make and share art with you all!  Thank you and we wish you a HAPPY HAPPY New Year!

With love,
Arlene & The Tigers

The Tigers from Your School Espoo, Finland are making and sharing with the Full Moons from Moonstone Preschool in Philadelphia, USA. Both groups are 4-5 years old.

Your art inspires stories!

Inspiration is everywhere!  To see how our inspiration directly comes from our friends in Shenzhen, China we looked at the artworks they had sent us. This got our creativity buzzing!!  It was also fun to review all the Dear You projects we have been making these past few months.

We then got into three small groups where a teacher helped the students to write down their thoughts on who the characters are in the story, what happens in the story, and how does the story end.  Have a listen to the artists at work:

DearYou #Helsinki #Finland #InternationalSchoolofHelsinki #ArleneTucker

When the groups were ready with their story they had a quick think about how to TELL the story using their voice and intonation as an art form. As you can hear, they all did an amazing job!

Uploaded by Arlene Tucker on 2017-12-11.

The Explorers

Thank you for being friends with us! It has been great getting to know you through your artwork and videos!

With love,
Arlene & The Explorers

The Explorers, 5-6 year olds, from International School of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing with the artists aged 6 years old at Shenzhen Primary School in Shenzhen, China.

Tarinoita ja juhlat

Dear You -projektimme viimeisellä kerralla Kontulan ostarilla sijaitseva the Museum of Impossible Forms kutsui meidät vierailulle. Vierailun aluksi katsoimme videoterveiset Kiinasta. Saimme myös nähdä taideteoksia, joita ystävämme olivat tehneet.

Viimeisessä työpajassa kirjoitimme ja äänitimme pienissä ryhmissä äänitarinoita, joissa teemana oli Differences and Similarities. Työskentelyn päätteeksi Arlene oli kutsunut vieraaksemme lapsiryhmän Kontulalaisesta päiväkoti Pihapirtistä. Pihapirtin lapset aloittavat ensi vuonna oman Dear You -projektinsa. Iltapäivä jatkui juhlavilla tarjoiluilla ja luotujen tarinoiden yhdessä kuuntelulla.

http://hyllinkuvis.blogspot.fi/2017/12/tarinoita-ja-juhlat.html

Making inspiring stories calls for a party!

We are watching a video our friends in China made for us!

For the last project of this session, we thought it would be great to bring the artists in 7C from Helsingin yhteislyseo to get to know another artistic space in Kontula, Helsinki. So we gathered in Museum of Impossible Forms to create Inspiring Stories art project and celebrate with next year's Dear You group from Päiväkoti Pihapirtti, who are also located in Kontula!

We started the session by looking at a video a few of the artists from Shenzhen Middle School made for their friends in Kontula. They had made a sweet introduction of themselves and also shared with us the art that they have been making in China.

Looking at our friend's artwork and thinking about past Dear You projects we have made gave us some material to work with as the next step was to make an audio story.  One artist said we need to keep in mind the sanoma (the message) when creating a story.  Some other creative writing elements are to designate characters and what is the beginning, middle, and end of the story. 

We then got into small groups and came up with four different amazing stories! When it was time to record, we thought about intonation, sound effects, and tone of voice to enhance the story.

Brainstorming in small groups

And action! Recording our audio story.

Anastasia and the groups then edited their audio recordings

The stories were all so different! Have a listen! 

MuseumofImpossibleForms #Forest #Kontula #Helsinki #Finland #13yearsold #InspiringStories

Forest is a story about a boy named Ajax. He lived in the 1940s in a small village. Ajax went to pick some berries and mushrooms in the woods. About an hour into the journey, he found himself lost. He then saw a mökki (a small cottage) and peaked through the window. Inside he saw an open cupboard, which had a lot of food in it. He went inside and ate a big loaf of bread. After that he left the mökki to try and find his way home. Along the way, he met an old person and asked this person some questions. The old person didn't understand anything!

DearYou #Kontula #Helsinki #Finland #InspiringStories #13yearsold #MuseumofImpossibleForms

DearYou #Kontula #MuseumofImpossibleForms #Helsinki #Finland #InspiringStories #13yearsold

The storytellers from Differences and Similarities have more questions for their friends in China.

Do you pack your own lunch? Or do you pay 1euro for it? Or how much?
Do you have a lot of homework?
When does your school day end?
Are your tests difficult?
Does your school have any after-school activities?

Helsinki #Kontula #MuseumofImpossibleForms #DearYou #InspiringStories

Eläimet puussa , Animal in the tree (English translation)
All the animals are meeting under a tree and they decided to make a pack. The pack leader is the lion. The walrus also wants to be a leader. They start to fight and the walrus wins. The walrus will become the leader and so the lion has to go. The walrus was a good leader but the lion returned. The lion took a coconut from the tree and hit the walrus in the head with it while the walrus was asleep. The walrus got a mild concussion! The lion became the leader again. The animals didn't want the lion to the be leader so everybody else left the pack.

We had a great time making these stories for you!

Thank you! Kiitos!

With love,
Arlene, Anastasia, Saara, and the artists at 7C

The 13 year old artists at Helsingin yhteislyseo in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with the 13 year old artists from Shenzhen Middle School in Shenzhen, China.

In autumn 2017 Dear You project in Kontula is supported by the Museum of Impossible Forms.

From left to right: Saara Raevuori, Arlene Tucker, and Anastasia Artemeva. Saara is the art teacher at Helsingin yhteislyseo. Arlene and Anastasia are the makers and creators of Dear You. Thank you, Museum of Impossible Forms for hosting us!

Transferring visions

The artists in China have been experimenting with using the graphite transfer technique! They got inspiration from the elements around them to show their friends in Finland a little a bit about who they are.

Thank you!

The 13 year old artists at Shenzhen Primary School in Shenzhen, China are making and sharing with 7c, 13 year olds, from Helsingin yhteislyseo in Helsinki, Finland.

K/1HT on art

Hi Arlene and the Monkeys!

We really enjoyed your little movie where you answered all our questions. We have watched it a few times! Thank you for taking the time to make it for us!

We have sent an audio recording with our thoughts about your art works. We have some funny bits in there as well from our teacher who kept forgetting not to interrupt!!!

Australia #Finland #DearYou

This will be our last project with you because we will finish our school year in 5 days and when we start our new school year at the end of January, we will be in different classes with different teachers. It's been great to have been able to share our art and our ideas. We will miss you all!

Keep up the great creative art works - we'll check out the website from time to time to see how you are all going.

All the best
From K/1HT xxx

The K1HT class from Bulli Public School in Bulli, Australia are making and sharing art with the Monkeys from Your School in Espoo, Finland. Both groups are 5-6 year old artists.

Searching and Finding with your new friends

The Monkeys and K/1HT have been getting to know each other since September. In the second project, The Art of Asking Questions, we made artworks that involved how word and text have a great affect on each other. 

The artwork from Australia was received and the Monkeys made an amazing video response!

Response to The Art of Asking Questions

K/1HT responded in written form!

The Monkeys from Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with K1HT class from Bulli Public School in Bulli, Australia. All artists are 5-6 years old.

"My friends are trading together"

What a day it was with The Explorers! When I told them that the idea today was to come up with a unanimous title for our collective book and to weave using recycled materials, everybody was so open minded to try new art techniques and to work together!  As always, I am deeply impressed with these young artists with how respectful and imaginative they are!

So how are ALL of us going to come up with one title when we ALL have such amazing ideas?  The Explorers came up with excellent suggestions such as, 1. to mix the ideas together, 2. we can vote, 3. we can take turns.  Being the kind and diplomatic group, The Explorers combined these methods and off we went with spouting out title ideas!

The top three titles were:
- Together my friend trading
- My friends are trading together
- Friends trading places

And the winner is, "My friends are trading together"!  This title really encapsulates Dear You art project and the process of exchange. Amazing how these 5 year old artists understand so clearly the heart of friendship, sharing, and creativity!

This was the first time The Explorers tried weaving and they all did a fantastic job as they took their time, asked for help when needed, and persevered when faced with a challenge.  Everybody could choose what they would like their base or loom to be.  They then played with colors, patterns, and happy coincidences that arose when weaving images together.

We hope our friends in China like our artwork!

With love,
Arlene & The Explorers

The Explorers, 5-6 year olds, from International School of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing with the artists aged 6 years old at Shenzhen Primary School in Shenzhen, China.

"Differences and Similarities"

With open minds and ears, 7C came to art class full of energy! In this session we made book covers for our joint project with our new friends in China. We decided to use recycled paper not only to be ecological and creative, but also, this way one can extrapolate so much information about the local environment in Finland just from the words and pictures found on the paper.

The first challenge was coming up with a unanimous title for the book!  Everybody was so gracious and diplomatic that it went smoothly, but we did go through quite many processes to get there. First we got into small groups to brainstorm and come up with some ideas. Then every group wrote their favorite idea on the board. They were:

- The wisdom of art
- The book of art
- Dear You
- Art book / Taidekirja / 藝術書
- The story of difference and similarity
- FinChi Konchita

We all voted and 'The story of difference and similarity' won! All was settled, until somebody spoke their mind and asked if we could shorten it. Good thing this person opened up because they made a very good point about why it should be modified. So then we all revoted and that's how the title 'Differences and Similarities' was born!

The range of papers gave them so much to play with color, patterns, and storylines!

I think these woven pieces of art are beautiful and we hope you like them too!

With love,
Arlene, Saara, and the artists at 7C

The 13 year old artists at Helsingin yhteislyseo in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with the 13 year old artists from Shenzhen Middle School in Shenzhen, China.

In autumn 2017 Dear You project in Kontula is supported by the Museum of Impossible Forms.

"Banana Sonic Jellyfish Turkey"

Hey Tigers,

Please enjoy our covers. We greatly enjoyed weaving our old mural work into primary colored
foundations. We cut our first mural (the shadow one) into strips.

While we weaved we looked at woven baskets and pondered titles. In the end we all agreed to call the book, Banana Sonic Jellyfish Turkey.

Here is how we came to our title. Everyone who had a suggestion, suggested. Then we read off the suggested titles and collectively voted on our favorites. There was a three way tie for Banana, Sonic and Jellyfish. So we decided to have all three/ to make it fair, we rearranged these words in a variety of combinations.

Sonic Jellyfish Banana.
Jellyfish, Sonic, Banana.

Everyone, aside from three friends, thought Banana Sonic Jellyfish was the best title.

To accommodate, we asked our three friends what word they liked. One said, Turkey! (Because
we are celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow), everyone got excited, so it was added to the end.

Everyone loved it, it was unanimous.

Here were our other choices:

We are grateful to have this art pal friendship and the opportunity to share our work with you,
Johnny Buckley and the Full Moons

Moonstone Full Moons, 4-5 year olds from Moonstone Preschool in Philadelphia, PA, USA, are making and sharing art with the Tigers, 4-5 year olds from Your School in Espoo, Finland.

"Our Nice Monkeys"

As usual, when I visit the Monkeys we start by reviewing what have made together so far to give context and understanding. This time, their memory continued to last year when we were making art with our friends in Mexico and United Arab Emirates! They recalled all the art projects we had made together. Amazed and heartfelt that they remembered all those details!

The November project, Weaving environments, is about putting the first two art projects received from our friends in Australia into a book. But what will the title of the book be? The first challenge of the day is to come up with a title together! So how will we do that? The Monkeys suggested we do rock paper scissors or listen to everybody.  We did a combination and took a vote! They thought this could be a fair way to proceed. 

SO many good ideas for the title to choose from! The possibilities were: 'Our Sweetheart', 'Our artwork', 'Our objects in the park', 'Our nice objects', 'Our nice Monkeys', 'Our nice friends in Australia', 'Our nice group', and 'Our nice toys'.

And the winner is...
Our nice Monkeys!!

Weaving was a new art technique for most of the Monkeys and they did a great job! They started to play with patterns and colors after they got the hang of the technique. Also, we talked about the symbolic aspect of weaving and the usage of recycled materials. I think our friends in Bulli can pick up a little on Finnish language from the papers we chose to weave.

Thank you and we hope you like our artwork!

My best,
Arlene and The Monkeys

The Monkeys from Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with K1HT class from Bulli Public School in Bulli, Australia. All artists are 5-6 years old.

A Live Act was very LIVELY!

From games inspired by improvisation and experimenting with different ways of feeling the space and each other, we had a great day of building the set for A Live Act with the 6 year-old-artists from Päiväkoti Saukko! Friday, October 13th, was a full day of imagining and creating dream worlds!

After warming up, we got into small groups to brainstorm what kind of dream world we would like to live in.  We asked each other questions such as:
What does your dream world look like?
What would you like in your world?
Who is in your world?
What does your world smell like?
What are the crunchiest things in your world?
How would you like to be treated in your dream world?

Candy, love, and games had quite a strong presence in our discussions and helped form our dream worlds!  Through collective drawing, light art, and sound recordings, we made our dreams come true.

People from all over the world contributed to the building of the set! On Saturday, October 14th, we had a non-stop workshop open to public. Thank you, artists in Taiwan, China, Finland, and USA for your lovely artworks and good energy!  The artists from Puotilan ala-asteen Jees-iltapäiväkerho and The English School in Helsinki sent in packages of their beautiful worlds!

The performance on Sunday, October 15th, gave us all a chance to play within our worlds and with each other.  Vera Lapitskaya was the performance's dance artist while Arlene Tucker and Anastasia Artemeva created space for the audience to experiment with light, senses, and creating in the present moment. Mayim Alpert glued the space together with his music and intertwined live sounds by looping.

Special thanks to Teatteri ILMI Ö, Outi Sädekallio-Snellman, Sari Tupamäki, Minna Savin, and Matti Snellman. Funding was gratefully received by Suomen kulttuurirahasto,  Taiteen edistämiskeskus and Helsingin kaupunki.

This was part of Suomi 100 program. Happy Birthday Finland!  You are officially 100 years old!

"Ladybugs"

When I got to Your School I was so happy to hear that another magical package from Moonstone Preschool in USA had arrived!! We opened it and pondered over the amazing questions the Full Moon artists posed to us.  In short, YES! We like Halloween too!!

For this next project, Weaving Environments, we thought about how the art technique can support the idea symbolically, but also practically.  Since the aim of this month's project was to  make a book cover, we first talked about the title of our story.  How do we unanimously decide on something when there are so many of us?  For example, when our friend wants to play a different game from you, how do we come to a peaceful conclusion?  The Tigers had so many lovely ideas such as take turns.  Seeing that we are such a big group, we thought to take a vote, which is something the Tigers do in the classroom too.

Here are the many different ideas that the Tigers came up for the title of their story. 

Everybody could have one vote. And the winner is Ladybugs!!

This was the first time the Tigers had a go at weaving. They all did an amazing job taking their time and making sure that they are going under and over when needed.  They got very good at seeing where things need to be corrected, which is a big part when one is weaving.  The artists could choose if they wanted to write the title 'Ladybugs' or draw ladybugs on the book cover.

I am so proud of them and they are of themselves, which is the most important part!!

We hope the Full Moons like our patterns, weavings, and book covers!

With love,
Arlene, The Tigers, Iveta, and Atefeh

The Tigers from Your School Espoo, Finland are making and sharing with the Full Moons from Moonstone Preschool in Philadelphia, USA. Both groups are 4-5 years old.

“over” or “under”?!

Dear Monkeys and Arlene,

We really enjoyed doing this book cover activity but we did find it a little hard to remember whether to go “over” or “under”! It took some practice but we think we got there!

We did this project with a teacher intern who was with us for 3 weeks practising to be a teacher. She loves art and craft and is very artistic! Her name is Ms Harris.

She suggested that, in the little squares that were created between the woven strips, we should draw some little pictures about things that were important to us in our lives. 

We hope you like our book covers for you!

You'll be HEARING from us soon when we finish the next project!

Best wishes from us all in K/1HT. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

P.S. We’ll be answering all your wonderful questions soon! Keep an eye out for another letter from us!

The K1HT class from Bulli Public School in Bulli, Australia are making and sharing art with the Monkeys from Your School in Espoo, Finland. Both groups are 5-6 year old artists.