Oh my! Our first package has arrived!

1B class in Helsinki, Finland were soooo excited to have received such a big package full of fantastic greetings and pictures from their new friends! Most of the children in the class have not visited NYC yet so their friends’ description of what Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens are like gave more juice for the imagination than you can begin to imagine!

Everybody first had a go at reading their friend’s letter by themselves. I think that the kids were too excited to focus on the words! After everybody had read their letter they started their response. Some wanted to start by drawing a picture and others immediately wanted to answer their friend’s questions.

This was wonderful as we got to practice how to be conversational on paper. The questions the New Yorkers asked were just lovely! How many people live in Finland? What is the weather like? Do you have any pets? There was a range of questions, but what was also lovely was how open and sharing everybody was. What a welcoming start to a long distance friendship!

We read and responded to the letters at school and soon realized that this was also a great opportunity to involve the parents. The parents helped the kids write their responses and find out facts for the curious New Yorkers. For example, we learnt that there are more people living in NYC than all of Finland! I think the parents had fun finding all of this information with their child : ).

The package will be sent to USA first thing tomorrow morning. Keep your eyes peeled!

With love,
Arlene & 1B

The students in Grade 2 (7-8 years old) at NEST+m in NYC are making and sharing art with the Grade 1 students at Ressun peruskoulu (7-8 years old) in Helsinki, Finland.

Hearing sounds like walking in the snow

They closed their eyes and to make sure no one was using their eyes, they put their hats over their eyes as you can see on the pictures attached.

Some of them were „hearing“ sound of nature, like wind and walking in the snow, but most of them thought of sounds of machines, washing machine, cars, hammer and also f. ex shouting of their sisters and brothers at home.

They were trying their best – and they could stay quiet while they listened.

Guðný and Halla.

The 1st and 2nd graders from Grunnskóli Fjallabyggðar in Siglufjörður, Iceland are making and sharing art with the preschoolers from Oakdale Preschool in Cape Town.

The perfect picnic!

How happy we were when the table cloth arrived! It is a beautiful piece – and the fish is so appropriate because here we love fish and Siglufjörður is famous for fish industry (herring industry) in the past. And also now, although we don´t fish herring still. We have already had picnic twice and used that beautiful tablecloth, as you can see on the pictures. It was quite a good idea to have the names of the kids on the cloth, then their friends could sit at the „right“ place.

All the projects in the Dear you work have been inspiring and brought out creative thinking – good for both children and teachers. We would be happy to take part next year, it would be better not to start in August/Sept. .... maybe January would be good for us like this year. Tomorrow is the last day of school for the kids, but teachers will be working until 9th of June.

Thank you Kathleen and Arlene!

All the best,
Halla and Guðný.

The 1st and 2nd graders at Grunnskóli Fjallabyggðar in Siglufjörður, Iceland are making and sharing art with the 2nd graders at Amy Parks Heath Elementary School in Heath, Texas.

Come out for a picnic with us!

Now we have almost finished the table cloth, the gift to our friends in Texas. The kids are so proud of their work! We had a lot of fun doing the project „Come have a bite to eat with me“, and the kids liked thinking that their friends abroad would go out for a picnic using the table cloth that was made here in Iceland. Ithas lively, happy colours as we would like to feel when we go out together and have a good meal!

On Wednesday, we will have a school exhibition where the kids are showing their work to their parents and inhabitants of our town are invited. We really want to have the cloth there for them to introduce this wonderful project to them. After that we will send it to you.

Best wishes to you all,
Halla and Guðný

The 1st and 2nd graders at Grunnskóli Fjallabyggðar in Siglufjörður, Iceland are making and sharing art with the 2nd graders at Amy Parks Heath Elementary School in Heath, Texas.

Sounding our Little Forest "Pikku Metsa"

Sounding our surrounding meeting went real well, thanks to classroom teachers Titta and Anne, who had taken their young artists for an explorative walk in a little forest literally called Little Forest "Pikku Metsa" beforehand. From the walk, the kids brought natural materials for making brushes, as well as many interesting sounds to paint. We chatted about the difference in soundscapes in the school and outside in nature, as well as about composing music, as we painted our songs.

A lot of time was deliberately left for reflection and performance of the scores. To get into the musical mood, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star was performed skillfully by both groups - in Finnish and in English languages.

In 1A we each described what we heard and how we decided to combine and express these sounds on paper. In 1B we sang, hummed, tapped and whistled our own and each other's paintings.

It was lovely to hear, a teacher noted, how now, after 3 meeting, the kids already started to respond to me in English (Viertola is a Finnish - speaking school, but I speak English to the kids). Nice to see how Dear You can be not only a way to make art and meet new friends, but to learn a language also. 

Anastasia Artemeva

Below are photos from Titta's 1A class:

Below are photos from Anne's 1B class:

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.

After the storm in Siglufjörður...

The day after a big storm in Siglufjörður we went out to see what the wind had brought us. The ground had been all white the previous days because it had been snowing every day for many days. But that morning the snow was not white, it was covered with pine needles and branches from trees and all kind of stuff that the kids picked up. When they were painting they were thinking of the sound of the storm which brought us all this. We had all kinds of sounds, whispering, whistling, banging and heavy/vigorous sounds.

Below are pictures of the artist's work and also one picture taken before the storm, where the kids in 1-4th grade are outside by their snow-fort. As you can see spring has not come here yet, though we have had good weather the last days.

By, by Halla and Gyðný

The 1st and 2nd graders at Grunnskóli Fjallabyggðar in Siglufjörður, Iceland are making and sharing art with the 2nd graders at Amy Parks Heath Elementary School in Heath, Texas.

From Iceland to Texas, with love!

Here are pictures of the work, tomorrow the books will be sent to Texas.  The kids have had much fun doing the books. They introduced their book to the class, keeping it a secret which food they had chosen. The class was guessing and they were very excited, and in the end the secret came out.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to take part in this, and it is also great to see it on Facebook.

Love, Halla and Guðný

The 1st and 2nd graders at Grunnskóli Fjallabyggðar in Siglufjörður, Iceland are making and sharing art with the 2nd graders at Amy Parks Heath Elementary School in Heath, Texas.

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.

Anything is possible when you're having fun!

The mask project was difficult for grade 1 students to understand (we teach art in French), but the projects are cute!

Elizabeth Goldsworthy and her 1st graders at Sheppard Public School in Ontario, Canada are making and sharing art with Tatjana Knudsen and her 3rd graders at Korsholm Skole in Hinnerup, Denmark.