"Taan's Moons" by Alison Gear was created on Haida Gwaii,
the most western part of Canada.
The book was given to families entering kindergarten last fall.
All the pictures were created with the children in kindergarten and grade 1
on Haida Gwaii with artist Kiki van der Heiden.
The pictures in the book were created by using a method of wet felting.
Since we were doing this in a limited time I decided
to try needle felting with the families.
I thought long about how to keep this a safe activity and found
a multi-needle that has a safe guard.
We started by pulling the roving apart and laying it on a piece of felt.
Next the children took turns needling it. This will be the background of our picture.
Then we went outside to read the book.
This was our evening session so we had older siblings that could help with the reading.
The book is about Taan, which in the Haida language means bear,
and how he sees a year go by.
As we read the book each child picked a colour of wool.
Back in school we started to create our picture.
First we started with brown to make Taan.
Then I asked the children what should Taan be seeing or doing
and they decided they wanted a rainbow.
They placed the wool in the order they wanted their colours
then we took turns needling it.
One child took a strong interest in this project
and needled most of the rainbow.
Then her little sister helped add clouds.
For our first time trying needle felting I think it turned out really well.
