The English School find creativity everywhere!

The first impression pupils had on this task was "creepy". Observing their own skin was not so interesting for them. Finally they choose to take this project with eager minds :) They are very curious about their new Canadian friends. I let them to see and read the letters we have received this far. 

A few did masks using different materials. Many borrowed faces or part of somebody else´s face using the magazine photos. They enjoyed playing with the Mac photobooth.

Br,
Päivi Huhtinen

Päivi Huhtinen and her group of 5th graders from The English School in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with Kaarina Losey and her 6th graders at Pioneer Park P.S. in Ontario, Canada.

Patterns from South Africa!

All the children were introduced to the theme during circle time. My teachers explained to the children that our skin is made up of cells and that our finger prints are all different. The children were asked to describe what they can see on their skin and fingers. Some children mentioned that we have holes in our skin were the hair comes out, others mentioned that we have lines and creases on our hands and feet. We told the children that their hands and feet are unique and the children compared their hands with the person sitting next to them in the circle.

The teachers explained that we are going to decorate a mask using the patterns we see on our skin, hands and feet. The children decided to use ear buds, sponges and the back of paint brushes to try and make up the patterns. We used food colouring/dye for this exercise not paint.

On the back of each mask is the childrens name, date of birth and Pink for girls and Blue for boys.

Lots of fun was had by staff and the children – we cannot wait to start the next project. The parents have been informed about the initiative in our weekly newsletter and are very supportive of this fantastic idea.

Kind Regards,
Rebecca

The 3-6 year olds at Oakdale Montessori School in Cape Town, South Africa are making and sharing art with the Tigers, 4-5 year olds from Just Kids School in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Vroom vroom chugga chugga beep beep

It was fun!  The kids made wonderful vehicles.  I think they were very eager about it.  We used color paper, glue, scissors and pencils. 

Many kids adapted the task to their ideas about what kind of vehicles they would like to make.  There was even a human character- vehicle and a sweet princess carriage :).  Some kids followed the instructions, while others improvised.  I had a book about all kinds of transport and I showed it to everybody. 

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 Tigers take a closer look at their world

What?! How can that be? Where did that come from? 

Things started to look very different when put under the lens.  The Tigers were explorers and made art inspired from their explorations.  The world may look different after some close inspection : ). 

The Tigers are 4 year old artists at Your School in Espoo, Finland.  They are making and exchanging art with the Puppies, 4 year old artists at Just Kids School in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Can you see what the Monkeys see?

Our exploration with the magnifying glasses brought us to closer to what is around us!  Can you figure out where the Monkeys found their inspiration for their masks?

The Monkeys at Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with the Full Moons from Moonstone Preschool in Philadelphia, PA.

Have you ever seen this before?!

What a wonderful imagination all the Monkeys at Your School have!  From simple shapes, they all came up with vehicles that could glide, fly, drive over all kinds of terrain.

J made a magic creature that can take you anywhere you want to. You just have to hop in and write where you want to go and then pull.

M's vehicle has a chimney.  It's name is One Wheel and it can fly.

N's submarine can go upside down!

M thought a sea monster could be a fun new machine to ride.

W's vehicle is operated by a Snow Man. It can travel anywhere you want to- even on air, ground, and water!

N's camper van can fly because there is a motor.  There are symbols for the driver to push. E=engine. S=snola. G=gas. M=motor.

I think it's true when E says, "Nobody in the world has ever seen this vehicle before!  Because it's imaginary.  It has oval shaped wings and a lot of buttons."

The Monkeys always have loads of questions from their Moonstone friends in Philadelphia, USA.

How hot is it there?
Are they having fun?
What do they like to do?

"We all love receiving your artwork and we hope you like our things too!"

With love,
Arlene and The Monkeys

The 5-6 year old Monkeys from Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and exchanging art with the 5 year old Full Moons from Moonstone Preschool in Philadelphia, USA.
 

Yay! The Tiger Cubs and Puppies received a package from Finland!

Look what came today! The kids were very excited to check it all out! And were very intrigued with their inventions!

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!!

Environment Consciousness Week in our thoughts

As there was Environment Consciousness Week right before the Atmosphere project, children drew air and land, polluted air and clean air. After taping all works together kids did not feel like adding anything.

So long,  enjoy holidays and time!

Best,
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.

Will they walk? or..drive?... or fly?!

The kids, as usual were very eager to start creating their next project. We remembered the amazing things we have made already. First we made a friend, then we had to make a house for that friend, then we needed a place for the house... now, how will our friend get around?

Will they walk? or..drive?... or fly?!
We had many ideas of transport that our imaginary friends could travel by. Cars, trains, buses, trucks, rockets....
I asked the children, so, what makes our things special? whats crazy or different about your train?

"my train is a High speed train!"
"my boat has candy inside!"
"my plane is also a bird!"
"my boat is going to my grandma and grandpa's house!"

So many imaginative ideas, we all had a great time playing with shapes and using our creativity.

Dear friends of Finland, we hope you enjoy our art!

Teacher Steph, the Tiger Cubs and the Puppies.

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!! 

Looking towards the horizon in Estonia

Töös osalesid lapsed vanuses 4-5 aastat: 6 poissi. Tööprotsess neile meeldis. Eriti see, et sai valida mitmesuguste pliiatsijoonte vahel, millega pind täita. Vaatasime rühmaaknast välja ja leidsime oma silmapiiri - taevas ja maa. Sellest tulenevalt ka värvid sinine ja roheline. Laste jaoks oli põnev koht, et piltidest kokku tekkis justkui pikk maastik orgude ja kõrgndikega - meie Lõuna-Eesti maastik.

Ja meile õpetajatele, mulle ja Lissile, meeldib lastega kunsti teha ja seda protsessi kõrvalt nautida.

Aitäh meie igapäevaelu rikastamise eest!

Inge

***

Most of kids from our pre-school have viruses, therefore only half of the group is together. 6 boys, aged 4-5 years participated at the project. They loved the process. Specially, that they could choose between different pencil lines with what to fill the surface. We looked out from window and found our horizon- sky and earth. From there the colours: blue and green. It was also interesting for kids that pictures together made long spanning landscape, with valleys and heights- our Southern Estonian landscape. 

And for teachers, to me and Lissi, we love making arts with children and enjoy the process. 

Thank you for enriching our everyday life!

Inge

Thanks to Evelyn Müürsepp for the English translation!

Hip Hip Hooray!

Hooray! We got a school in India and we sent our 2 projects today, we look forward to see our friends’ work in India.

Children were surprised to see the Pop-up cards and when we introduced them that they will make their own places for their puppets which they did before, they immediately start to think and ask questions about it. Some of the children wanted to choose 1 or 2 different house(s) and did their own decoration for the place. Some of them remembered that they made an animal as an imaginary friend so they preferred to do designed it by drawing the animal houses and the details.

We enjoyed making pop-up places for our imaginary friends and we hope you’ll like them as much as we do!

We wish you a “Happy New Year”.

Warm regards,
Dynamic Dinosaurs.

he 4-5 year old Dynamic Dinosaur artists from Açı Preschool in Istanbul, Turkey are making and sharing art with the young artists from Praxis Foundation in Mysore, India.

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

Exploring Finland from Vietnam

The children are so excited to begin the next project! They ask me everyday when we will make something new for our friends in Finland. So bringing this project to them brought on a lot of excitement in the classroom.

I started by drawing a person, and a house and then we started talking about what else we can draw. I was met with suggestions of trees, and a sun and many other things from our environment. We then started a discussion about Finland and what the environment looks like there.

I then showed them 2 videos of Finland. We saw the beautiful long summer days and the long, cold winter nights. We were mesmerised by the beautiful northern lights. "I want to travel to Finland!", "I want to LIVE in Finland!".

So then we discussed what we did see in the videos of the Finnish environment. I showed them their next project and they were very eager to begin. Many stars and lots of snow, hot suns and water for boats. I was getting a lot of comments about the environment they were drawing, so, most of the pictures have small descriptions for our new friends to read. We also had the world map up on display for the children to be reminded of. The kids loved finding some of the new countries they are learning about!

We stuck them all together and followed our environment line from end to end. What a beautiful product! 

We hope you enjoy our artwork. It comes with a lot of love!
Teacher Steph, the Tiger Cubs and Puppies.

Below are pictures of the Puppies's Shared Atmosphere collective painting. 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.

Below are pictures of the Tiger Cub's Shared Atmosphere collective painting project. The 4 year old Tiger Cubs at Just Kids are friends with the K1 artists at International School of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland. Exciting!! 

Play houses from the Tigers

It's amazing how the Tigers can turn a simple rectangle into a super fun play house! We had so much fun making our pop-up homes for our new puppets that our friends in Vietnam made for us. Now our friends have a place to stay in their new cozy home in Finland!

We first looked at the puppets the Puppies in Vietnam made for us and then created homes that we though would be nice for them. What an inspiration!

Thank you and we look forward to receiving your homes.

Warm hugs,
Arlene & The Tigers

Moi Moi Tiger Cubs!

We had the wonderful time Skyping with our friends, Tiger Cubs, in Vietnam. Last month they had made some imaginary friend puppets and posted them to us. The children really engaged in the skype call, thinking of excellent questions to ask their new friends:

A asked, ‘What are your names? Do you like candy?’
Aa asked, ‘Where do you live?’
Dsri asked, ‘Is it hot in Vietnam?’
J asked, ‘Do you play spiderman games?’
W asked, ‘Do you like cake?’ (To this they answered ‘YEEEAAAAHH! we love cake’)
F asked, ‘We have kind and helpful hands, do you?’

They asked us how we say hello in Finnish and what the weather was like here today.  We found out that it's warm in Vietnam! And that it's afternoon in Hanoi whereas it was morning in Helsinki. What?! Wow!

Dsri told them that the leaves were falling here so we showed them what it looks like outside of our window. K and A explained how to play the police game. It seems that the Tiger Cubs also like to play the police game! They wondered if we like the minions and told us what they would be dressing up as for halloween! We realised that we have so much in common :).

Soon it will be Halloween! We talked about what we will dress up as. We can't wait to see your costumes, Tiger Cubs!

With love,
K1, Arlene, Lydia, and Bibiana

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.

The artists from Hanoi create warm homes for their friends!

The kids were so excited to begin our second art project for our new friends in Finland!

We started by discussing our imaginary friend puppets that we made... and they were so so lovely...but there was one small problem. Where were they to live when they arrived in Finland?? Oh dear! We better get onto this straight away!

So we had a small discussion about what our friends house might look like and where they might live.. Little Ong said her imaginary friend lives in Finland, we had friends living in tall buildings, in cars, in airplanes and even underwater! Phuong Linh remembered her Mermaid friend, who of course, lives in a palace under the sea!

I showed them all a demonstration that I had made, they were all so excited that they were soon to be making their own! Then we went step by step over the project. Talking about tall buildings need bigger cuts up the paper, but small things only need a small cut.

Soon enough we were at our tables, and imaginations and creativity were flowing! we had tall buildings, houses, fish, minions, hearts, trees and more! They were so proud of their creations that they carried them around the classroom while they tidied up!

We are sure our friends in Finland are going to love them!

With love, Teacher Steph, the Tiger Cubs and the Puppies from Ha Noi, Vietnam.

Here are some artworks of the Tiger Cubs to K1 artists in Helsinki, Finland.

Here are some artworks of the Puppies to the Tigers in Espoo, Finland.

The Monkeys have made great travel companions for their friends at Moonstone Preschool

Ask the Monkeys for some travel advice and they will offer every kind of possibility! From buses to trains to rockets. This all came about when we were figuring out how our Imagine Me puppets are going to reach our new friends at Moonstone Preschool in Philadelphia, USA. Finland is quite a ways from there, but we are up for an adventure!

As we were creating our puppets we thought about what makes a good friend and here are some things the Monkeys said about their imaginative artworks. Meet Seek. Seek is a good friend because "he helps me when I need help," says J. N's puppet's name is Elsa. "She's a good friend because she's nice to me." I's Stella is "fun and playing with everybody. Listening to the teacher and doing everything herself." E called her friend Rosey. "Rosey is nice. She helps me get the way out." A's puppet Super Savior "saves me when I'm in danger!" M's puppet is a boat named Oh No. When I asked M why Oh No is a good friend, she said, "She makes me laugh." I think that's one of the most important characteristics a friend should have too!

Thanks for the lovely afternoon, Monkeys!

With love,
Arlene

The Monkeys (6 years old) from Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with the Full Moons (5 years old) from Moonstone Preschool in Philadelphia, USA. 

The Very Hungry Caterpillar comic strips

If you haven't read The Very Hungry Caterpillar, then I'm sure after you see these comics inspired by Eric Carle's book,  you will want to!  The artists from Moonstone Preschool in Philadelphia, USA did a wonderful job!  Their friends at The International School of Antwerp will have some summer fun reading to do :).