Dear You Art Project

Mail Art + Pen Friends = Dear You Art Project

Wax Crayons

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.

Autumn in Berlin

2016, 4 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Germany, MexicoArlene TuckerComment

I am happy to send you some pictures of our wonderful artworks. Our kids depicted our environments as they see it -  full of autumn colors and favourite places. You can hang our environments both from day side and from night side, they are equally beautiful!

Best regards, 
Lusine

Lusine Boyajyan and her group of 4 year olds artists from Kita Felix and Friends in Berlin, Germany are making and sharing art with Angy Castillo and her  Kinder A group from Colegio San Patricio 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.

 

From Circle Time to Colour Time

2016, 3 years old, 4 years old, 5 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Mexico, South AfricaArlene TuckerComment

The Toddlers at Oakdale Montessori followed with the lights, camera, action theme. We asked the Toddlers to colour in 2 shapes ad Triangle and a Square with this project. As the theme was about inside of a house. We decided to make houses and decorate the outsides. The Toddlers coloured in with wax crayons and the painted the square for the house and the triangle for the roof. As the Toddlers are so small we did as staff help them with the windows and the smoke.

The Early Childhood class gathered together during Circle time and spoke to them about how we received Elma the Elephant and this time we will be sending back art in a shape. The children chose a square to work with. I think that fun was had by all watching the colours come up through the paint work.

Thanks so much!

Regards,
Rebecca

The Toddler and Pre-school groups from Oakdale Montessori Preschool in Cape Town, South Africa are making and sharing art with Nursery C and Kinder C classes from Colegio San Patricio in Monterrey, Mexico.