Dear You Art Project

Mail Art + Pen Friends = Dear You Art Project

Finland

From Russian Karelia to Finland!

2016, 6th Grade, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, RussiaArlene TuckerComment

Here are drawings of the characters and their homes created by the artists in Karelia.

Ученики Финско-русской школы в Хельсинки получили художественную посылку из России. Ребята из Кепской школы им. Ортье Степанова  (п. Кепа, Калевальский район, респ. Карелия) придумали дома - гравюры для своих героев. Это третье задание 4-х месячной сессии проекта Дорогой ты осень-зима 2016г. Присоединяйтесь к нам! 

The artists from Кепа школу (Kepa School) in Karelia, Russia are making and sharing art with the artists from 2B at Suomalais-venäläinen koulu.

Looking around and what do we see?

2016, 6th Grade, Canada, FinlandArlene TuckerComment

Here are the photos of the spiral artworks for Look Around project. The index cards are their explanations of their artworks. Some of them painted outside, some painted inside because it had gotten too cold the one day to paint outside of the portable! :)

These works are all on their way to Päivi and her students. They were posted earlier this week, so hopefully they arrive before the holiday break! 

Teacher Kaarina Losey

The 6th graders at Ryerson P.S. in Cambridge, ON, Canada are making and sharing art with the 6th graders from The English School in Helsinki, Finland.

Looking at Vincent van Gogh's and William Turner's works for inspiration!

2016, 4th Grade, Canada, FinlandArlene TuckerComment

We began the 90min meeting with 4A class in Viertolan Koulu in Vantaa, Finland by reading out reflection and feedback from teacher Dance and her wonderful students in Ontario. I feel that it is always important for the young artists to know that their art appreciated and valued. 

Preparing for the worksop, I found the suggestion to demonstrate artworks depicting different kinds of environments to the children very helpful. Together we looked at works by Vincent van Gogh and William Turner, and discussed how these artists captured their worlds. We talked about how light, colour and brushstrokes can tell us about the weather, time of the day and the season in the landscape. 

Here is our work-in-progress, both side of the circles before they were cut into spirals. A combination of pencils and markers encouraged the creation of some very vibrant worlds. However, some of the characters live in outer space, and day there is not much different to night. (A little bit like Finland right now) 

Thank you to Kirsti and Viertolan Koulu for welcoming me again. Can't wait to see the art we get from Ontario!

- Anastasia Artemeva

The 4th graders from Viertolan Koulu in Vantaa, Finland are making and sharing with the 4th graders from Ryerson PS in Ontario, Canada.

Finnish Russian School shares with Russia!

2016, 8 years olds, 2nd Grade, Dear You Art Workshops, Dear You Workshop Leader, Finland, RussiaArlene TuckerComment

Today we had a workshop with SVK 2B class

Children were very interested in works they received from Russia. In our workshop kids drew home and things that relate to the topic. Boys were fast and did not want to engage with the scratching technique for too long, girls were more precise. I think they did very well and even talked about their works. So this is the result.

The photo where  pictures are  hanging on the wall is the one where we talk about the works we received. 

Kristina Laine

The artists from 2B at Suomalais-venäläinen koulu are making and sharing art with the artists from Кепа школу (Kepa School) in Karelia, Russia.

K1 have open arms for their friends in Mexico!

2016, 4 years old, 5 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, MexicoArlene TuckerComment

Today was an extra special Dear You workshop with the lovely artists at International School of Helsinki!  They were so excited to see what was in the package!  We read the letter from Kinder 3B and talked about their artworks.  Who is this frog character?  By looking at the artworks, what kind of personality does this frog have?  One of the best parts of this first share was reading the names of the artists in Mexico.  Some of us have friends or brothers and sisters with the same names!

Before the students came in from the park, Mrs. Maaninka showed me what K1 has been up to in their Unit of Inquiry, as part of PYP.  She showed me the great dioramas of the different landscapes and habitats they have been exploring. This subject coincided very nicely with the current Dear You project, Look around, which is about creating our character's environment using watercolors and wax crayons.

In circle time, we started off the workshop with an active discussion on what elements are in our environment.  When we step out of our school, what do we see?  The children said rocks, birds, trees, snow.  Oh, good thing they brought up snow!  I asked them, when I was here in October for the Layers of Love project, did we have snow?  No!  So that means our environment and our habitat changes.  We talked about these changes in relation to day time and night time too.  

We then shifted to our characters and thought about if we were at our character's home and stepped out for a walk, what would we see?  As you will soon discover, every artist in K1 was using their own imagination and making it come to life!

VA: In the day time there are bears who likes to wake up and eat berries. There are trees and lots of snow.  In the night time the bear sleeps so much under the moon light in the cave.
AR: In the day time it is sunny with a rainbow in the sky. At night time it is bright.
KES: Outside of Elsa's house is the blue sky, a bench, and yellow snow. At night time there are stars, sun, and moon, in the sky.
KEI: There is snow and it is dark at night time.
DEE: There are trees and it is dark at nigh!
MIC: Doodle saw two boxes and two dog balls. At night time there are star, trees, moon and one star is starting to break.
DEV: There is a house, trees, and raining rocks in the sky. At night time birds sleep in the nest in the dark sky with the moon.
SAS: In the day time there is sunshine and trees.
ENZ: In the day time you can see Darth Vader and rocks.  At night time you can see Star Wars, a princess, and Darth Vader.
SHR: In the day time, you can see a snake and princess Rapunzel. She was happy to see the sun! At night time, she is sleeping and there was a mouse.
GAU: You can see a boat on the water and mountains in the day time. At night time we sleep and the mountain looks like a letter.
ALE: This is Chewbacca's home. I am outside. There is a window. It is in the night time. It is a special house because Chewbacca lives there.
AIS: I drew a dog and he is going to sleep. It is night time. He has a tree home. There is a bear looking at his tree. It is dark outside.
SAT: I painted all sand.  There are snowballs. It is outside a boy's home. It is during the day, I see the sun. In the night time it is dark.
SPE: This is the night. The people are sleeping and the bad guys are trying to steal the candy. We are outside the treat's home. In the day time, I see candy rocks in the water. There is grass outside. The sun is shining, but it almost dark.

We hope you enjoy our artworks and stories!

With love,
Arlene and the artists of K1

The 4-5 year olds in K1 at International School of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with the 4-5 year olds in K2B class from San Patricio Colegio in Monterrey, Mexico.

For many reasons, we are happy Monkeys!

2016, 5 years old, 6 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, MexicoArlene TuckerComment

The happy Monkeys just got happier!  They were very excited to receive the lovely letter and artworks from K2B class in Mexico.  Every part of the process was exciting- from reading the names of our friends to talking about Elmer the Elephant!  Thank you! Kiitos! Gracias!

We first started talking about what we see when we walk out of the school.  What is the environment like outside of Your School's doorstep?  Monkeys talked about pine trees, birds, bushes, and now we have snow.  Now the grass is covered with white snow.

Then we continued with our characters and where their homes are.  We imagined if we were at our friend's home and stepped outside, what would we find.  How would it look in the daytime and what about at nighttime?  The Monkeys first used wax crayons to accentuate and outline shapes.  When they painted over with watercolor this art technique helped highlight what they were trying to show in their painting.

K2B, we have a couple of questions for you.  Do you have snow in Mexico?  What do you like to do for fun?

We hope you like our artworks and we look forward to hearing from you!

Our best,
Arlene & the Monkeys

The 5-6 year old Monkeys from Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with the 5-6 year olds from Colegio Bosques de las Cumbres in Monterrey, Mexico.

 

Tigers are grateful for their gifts from Mexico. And then make more art!

2016, 4 years old, 5 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, MexicoArlene TuckerComment

The Tigers were so very happy to receive artworks from their friends from Mexico!!  We read their letter and then proudly put their artworks on the classroom wall.  Gracias amigos!

For the Look around project we started off by revisiting where our characters live.  When we stepped out of our character's home, What did we see? What was there? What was the environment like?  Everybody's imagination took them to a different place!  We thought about what this environment looks like in the daytime and at nighttime.  Using wax crayons and watercolors, we made our imagination come to life!  

With love,
Arlene & the Tigers

The Tigers from Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with Nursery A from Colegio San Patricio Cumbres in Monterrey, Mexico.  Both groups of artists are 4 years old.

Enjoying Layers of Love in Canada

2016, 6th Grade, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, CanadaArlene TuckerComment

Greetings from Canada! 

They really enjoyed the artwork as they got going with it. A few students used too much paint in an attempt to cover it completely and then had the paint flake off instead of allowing them to etch it off.

Some were very hesitant about painting over their artworks. :) Others enjoyed it so much they asked to do a second artwork jn the same manner!

Kaarina

The 6th graders at Ryerson P.S. in Cambridge, ON, Canada are making and sharing art with the 6th graders from The English School in Helsinki, Finland.

The English School in Helsinki show their love for their Canadian friends

2016, 6th Grade, Canada, Dear You Art Workshops, FinlandArlene TuckerComment

I asked the group to think about what makes them feel home.  They wrote some thoughts on the back of the work. We used a ready made black & silver scrap-card board.

Last lesson we looked through the images made in Canada. They loved the works and had lots of comments. 

We packed the Layers of Love scratch drawings, their comments, and the school posted it today.

Br,
Päivi

The 6th graders from The English School in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with the 6th graders at Ryerson P.S. in Cambridge, ON, Canada.

Flying homes on their way from Finland to Canada!

2016, 4th Grade, 9 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Dear You Workshop Leader, Canada, FinlandArlene TuckerComment

Our homes are on their way to Canada!

Young artists from 4A in Viertolan Koulu, Vantaa, Finland, are a real team of independent thinkers! Each artist created their own, unique home for their character.  In some homes there were pets and flowers, a little bit like in the artists' own houses, while others were evidently created especially for Pockemons, horses and superheroes. Because of the small size of the paper, the secret houses look like postcards with a coded message. 

Some of the young artists, encouraged by their wonderful class teacher Kirsti, had prepared personal letters addressed to their new friends. This is already the second letter they have written to the artists in Ryerson Public School in Cambridge, Canada. It is very inspiring to see different ways of communication that we can use to connect with each other.

Anastasia Artemeva

The 4th graders from Viertolan Koulu in Vantaa, Finland are making and sharing art with the 4th graders from Ryerson Public School in Cambridge, Canada.

ISH shares their Layers of Love!

2016, 4 years old, 5 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, MexicoArlene TuckerComment

The artists in K1 never seize to amaze me!  Each of the artist's home, which they made using scratch art technique is unique just like their character.  We started off the session by remembering who our characters are.  We dove deeper into our stories and lives of our characters and talked about what their homes were like.  What does the outside of their home look like?  What about the inside?  We used our own homes as reference.

K: The Ninjagos are playing outside in their yard on a sunny day.
DEV: Spiderman is dressing up in his house to get ready to fight the bad guys.
V: Elsa is coming inside her house to have snacks.
SH: Elsa is playing outside in the park, but all of a sudden it rains so she ran inside her house.
DEE: Elsa went outside and saw a swing and then she went on it. She saw a bean stalk and climbed up it and saw a castle and a giant.
G: Elsa is looking out the window and she saw somebody. She ran outside and played with them.
K: Elsa coming home from the market.
AI: Elsa lives in a home. She's looking at the Caste's garden.
SA: It's quiet inside the home.
MI: He lives in a den. He is hiding from the fire outside. He is safe inside.
EN: Living on the rocket, they are flying far away with the rocket. They are eating food inside.
SP: There is a tornado with spaghetti and meatballs in it.
SH: It is a car park with some tractors.
KA: Ninjago and doodle are making spaghetti.
AL: Piccachu is playing football outside the house.
SAT: The boy is playing with his toys inside the house.

As you can see everybody was open to exploring how we can use this technique to understand spaces and the revealing process of the different layers involved in life and in art practice.

We hope our friends in Mexico like it!

With love,
Arlene and the artists of K1

The 4-5 year olds in K1 at International School of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with the 4-5 year olds in K2B class from San Patricio Colegio in Monterrey, Mexico.

The Tigers know how to love!

2016, 4 years old, 5 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, MexicoArlene TuckerComment

The Tigers really amaze me with how present and creative they are! As if we were in the homes of our characters we were drawing the interior and exterior of their houses.  Brilliant!  Each one is unique and takes you to a special place.

Everybody was eager to draw with oil pastels and paint.  At first the scratching came as a bit of a surprise, but once they realized the affect it would give, they experimented away!

We hope our friends in Mexico enjoy our artwork and stories!

With love,
Arlene and the Tigers

The Tigers from Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with Nursery A from Colegio San Patricio Cumbres in Monterrey, Mexico.  Both groups of artists are 4 years old.

The story gets even more exciting with the Monkeys!

2016, 6 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, Mexico, Pre-SchoolArlene TuckerComment

We started off the session by telling each other stories about our characters, which we had made from the previous Dear You art workshop in Lights, Camera, Action!.  From then on, it was a smooth flow as to how to develop our ideas when creating our homes for the characters in Layers of Love.  We took each other on an imaginary adventure to discover what's on the inside and on the outside of our home.  As we scratching away the top layer the Monkeys realized that they could manipulate what they would like to reveal about the inside of the house.

Can you see which picture matches the artist's description?

K: I have an apple tree and pear tree and strawberries in my yard.
E: I have many strawberries in my backyard. There is a forest nearby.
VIO: My house is white. There is a forest and there are blueberries in the forest.
O: My house is brown and there are some trees around it.
VIG: It has many door and many flies.
N: My house is black. My room is so big.
L: It's white and super large.
J: It's long and it has a big room.
VE: It's white and big and beautiful!
A: It's white and almost big.
P: My house is big and the door is brown. The floor is brown because it's made of wood.
I: My house is a rainbow from the outside.
AA: I have a forest, terrace, trampoline, and black door in my house.
AL: I have a green house with a dark brown roof.
E: My house is red and black. There are trees around it.

Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you!

With love,
Arlene and the Monkeys

The 5-6 year old Monkeys from Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with the 5-6 year olds from Colegio Bosques de las Cumbres in Monterrey, Mexico.

From Inside to Outside, the layers are exposed

2016, 6 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Dear You Workshop Leader, Finland, MexicoArlene TuckerComment

The artistic boys at Espoon kuvataidekoulu (Espoo's Visual Arts School) had fun creating the inside and outside of their character's home using scratch art technique.

When everybody came into the studio, on the tables were their characters they had sculpted out of clay and then painted.  They were so happily surprised to see how their figures changed when fired in the oven!  These were the characters they invented for the first project, Lights, Camera, Action! and have been continued into the following project, Layers of Love.

After some discussion about their characters we moved on to where they live.  Everybody had a unique response.  We first created what their home looks like on the inside.  The colors they chose also help convey the feeling of the place.  The artists were a bit wary of painting over the oil pastel drawings, but once they understood how scratch art technique worked, they got very involved with drawing the outside of their home.

Each one is unique and tells their own story!  We hope our friends in Mexico like these artworks!

With love,
Arlene

The 6 year old artists from Espoon kuvataidekoulu in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with Prepri A, the group of 6 year old artists from San Patricio Colegio in Monterrey, Mexico.

Life is like a movie at The English School in Helsinki!

2016, 6th Grade, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, CanadaArlene TuckerComment

As the first art task of this school year,  the group was asked to imagine what if an animation film was made based on their own life. They planned and drew sketches of the recent experiences they have had. This task just happened to be very similar to Arlene´s first Dear You task. Many combined these two tasks together.

Children seemed to be a bit shy when writing to their new Canadians friends. They had time to write only short notes. However it was nice to see how their motivation grew as they their work progressed.

As a medium they used waterproof markers, transparent copy sheets, class paints + some colourful plastic sheets. Most of the photos were taken against our classroom window.

Many of the pupils have been playing Pokemon Go and that shows! Many images are based on hobbies and other interests of life. Most images are very personal.

Päivi Huhtinen

The 6th graders from The English School in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with the 6th graders at Ryerson P.S. in Cambridge, ON, Canada.

Time to share!

2016, 4th Grade, Dear You Art Workshops, Canada, FinlandArlene TuckerComment

We are ready to share our characters with our partners - Grade 4 friends from V.K. in Vantaa! Their package arrived today and we really enjoyed the art work! I posted their characters on the glass window in our room. I am sending a picture for you to see how beautiful they are.

The kids are excited to draw and write to kids who are far away from their country. There were so many questions about Finland and predictions on the climate. Some of the students really took time to share details from their lives.

I am sending pictures that show the working process and finished art work. It has been a great experience so far and we can't wait for the next art idea!

Together with art,
Dance A. Vasileska

Ryerson PS
Cambridge, Ontario
Canada

The 4th graders from Ryerson PS in Ontario, Canada are making and sharing art with the 4th graders from Viertolan Koulu in Vantaa, Finland.

Espoon kuvataidekoulu creates with their new friends!

2016, 6 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, Mexico, Pre-School, TeachingArlene TuckerComment

The 6 year old artist at Espoon kuvataidekoulu were very excited to find out that they have friends in Mexico!  We looked on the map where Mexico is and when we looked at pictures we saw that it seems very hot and dry climate. We already have so many questions!

What language do you speak?
Is it fun in Mexico?
What about the houses and buildings in Monterrey? What are they like?

Our artworks continued from character drawings we have been creating.  We have characters that are self-portraits, from Pikachu, and from our imagination.

Thank you and we look forward to meeting you!

With love,
Arlene, Eliisa, and artists from Espoo Visual Arts School

The 6 year old artists from Espoon kuvataidekoulu in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with Prepri A, the group of 6 year old artists from San Patricio Colegio in Monterrey, Mexico.

VK 4A Lights, Camera, Action!

2016, 4th Grade, Dear You Art Workshops, Dear You Workshop Leader, Finland, CanadaArlene TuckerComment

Characters and superheroes from young artists in 4A class in Viertolan Koulu in Vantaa, Finland are on their way to Ryerson Public School in Cambridge, Canada! 

We used oil pastels and overhead projector sheets to create the stain glass effect. At the end of the workshop the kids handed me a bunch of letters that they had written to their new friends personally. It was wonderful to see that Dear You project continues outside of our 90 minutes sessions. Together we wrote the names of the young artists and names of their characters next to each other, so it will easier to match artworks from this and following projects as the Autumn session continues.

The pace and the structure of our meetings are always important to me. As we use English as the main language of communication, with the help of the class teacher translating to Finnish and other languages, the initial discussion and the explanation of the project at the beginning always takes some time. This is enjoyable time for everyone, to think and imagine together. 

Then I make sure everyone has their materials ready, and for the second half of the session, the young artists just work independently, at their own pace, asking question if needed. My favourite part is when we have 5 minutes left, and everyone brings their works to the table at the front of the class, to admire each others' creations before placing them in one big envelope. 

Looking forward to our next meeting!

Anastasia Artemeva

The 4th graders from Viertolan Koulu in Vantaa, Finland are making and sharing art with the 4th graders from Ryerson Public School in Cambridge, Canada.

K2B class reads Elmer the Elephant Story!

2016, 4 years old, 5 years old, Collage, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, MexicoArlene TuckerComment

Dear friends from K1,

I´m so excited hearing from you! 

Tomorrow I will read your letter to my students, they will get excited too!!

We really enjoyed making this project, my students got so happy when they first listened about the project, we did the same as you did, we found on the internet where Finland is on the map, they got surprise to see how far we are from each other, also we looked some pictures that we found on google of your school, they couldn't wait to sent the project to you!

We read Elmer the elephant story, they loved it, so our character is Elmer, you will receive many different elephants, we hope you like it too!! 

My student will be very happy to see all your projects, because guess what!! they love Frozen, Dora, Spiderman, Pokemon and all the characters you mention too!! 

When we made our projects we were celebrating Mexico´s Independence day! So if you can see in the pictures some of them were wearing Mexican clothes to commemorate this day.

Is nice to hear that you had a sunny day when you made the project, right now here in Monterrey is very hot!!

We sent a big hug to everybody!!

We are so excited keeping in touch with you!!

With lots of love,
Ms. Gaby, Ms. Kasandra and all K2B class!!

Elmer the Patchwork Elephant is a children's picture book series by the British author David McKee.

K2B class from San Patricio Colegio in Monterrey, Mexico are making and sharing art with the K1 class at International School of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland.