Next week is our last Saturday at 1 program for the season. We'll start up again in the fall when our new exhibit on the history of the Galt Hospital building opens. Even though I know our annual reporting is on the calendar year, I'm still prone to thinking of seasons in academic terms - so today I'm doing a photographic "year" in review of our family program from October 2009 to May 2010.

Saturday at 1 is a fall-spring weekly program for families with children of all ages. Mostly children aged 4-12 attend the program, but since everyone is always welcome at my programs we've had a few weeks where it was mostly unaccompanied adults at the program. The program is a hands-on program and it's supposed to make the topics in our permanent and special exhibits come to life for children. Here are some highlights from the year...

In October, the Birds of Prey Centre came and taught us about the bird & dinosaur connection. And I learned a lesson about bringing birds into a room with carpets:

In November we made paper-mache dinosaurs using Brian Cooley's instructions from his book Make-A-Saurus. Cooley makes dinosaur models that are displayed in museums all over the world including Tyrrell Museum. His book, and this program, show the way science and art come together in museum displays.

In December we had a multi-cultural winter festival craft session. We made crafts from Kwanzaa, Chinese New Year, Chanukah, and Christmas:

In January the Devil's Coulee Dinosaur Heritage Museum brought us their travelling Junior Palentologist program. Attendance for this program was one of the highest of the year, even beating out the previous record holder - the fossil casting program.

In February we made treasure boxes for children to store their own treasures and curiosities:

In March we played artifact bingo and learned the stories behind some of the artifacts in the Treasures and Curiosities exhibit:

In April we celebrated earth day with photo frames for photos selected from our archives:

In May we made kites with the Textile Surface Design Guild and discussed the changing forms of energy over time from our coal mining origins in the 1870s to the new windmills on the horizon:

It's been a fun year and I'm looking forward to bringing the program back in October!