Colour Me History

I love to colour. And I particularly love to colour outside the lines (or even draw my own lines when I think that will look better).

So as I was thinking about how to "layer" things for my exhibit (provide information in various ways for those who like in-depth material but not bore those who just want a little bit of catchy information), I was lucky enough to visit the Lewis and Clarke Interpretive Centre in Great Falls and got from them a very cool idea. On the Saturday we visited they had in the centre two Newfoundland dogs. This allowed them to talk about the Newfoundland Dog (Seaman) who was on the expedition. With the dogs were a bunch of handouts and information -- on the breed, on Seaman's adventures, and more, there was also colouring pages of Newfoundland dogs.

Eureka! I had an idea (and, yes, I do have them on occasion). Why not create colouring pages of events that happened in Lethbridge between 1906 and 1913? Especially on things that kids will find interesting and relevant to them. Anyone who knows me, knows drawing is not one of my strong suits (I NEVER win at games like Pictionary) but we have incredible, awesome, amazing volunteers (I just can't say enough about them)!

We put out a request to volunteers to help with this and got several responses (but if others are also interested, please let us know because we can certainly use a few more). The more we can create for kids, the better. We will draw a set of pictures and at the bottom of each picture will be some historical information for kids and parents. We'll have these pictures available for kids to take home during the exhibit but we'll also have them up on our web-site for people to download and enjoy at home before or after their visit to the museum.

I say I'm doing all of this to make the exhibit more accessible for all age groups. But, really, it's because if we get the pages done, I'll have an excuse to do some colouring. Because, after all, someone is going to have to test to make certain they're good and effective colouring sheets.