The special collections at the Cotsen Children’s Library are full of delights, and now you can customize your very own historical illustration! We’ve compiled a number of wonderful coloring pages just waiting for your pens, pencils, markers, or paint. We’ll also be adding new pages as we make new discoveries for you enjoy!
READY TO COLOR? FOLLOW THIS LINK!
Many thanks to Katie Zondlo, Education and Outreach Assistant at the Cotsen Children’s Library, for leading the Coloring Cotsen initiative
This week libraries, archives, and cultural institutions around the world are sharing free coloring sheets and books based on their amazing collections. Hosted by The New York Academy of Medicine, the #ColorOurCollections archives is up year round, and the 2021 edition features 95 institutions from around the world, including the Princeton University Library!
The library’s “Coloring Feathers” pages were selected by Jennifer Cabral-Pierce, and are part of “Capturing Feathers,” her fantastic digital exhibit. It celebrates a collaboration between Princeton University Library and the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology. Together, they worked to digitize and study the personal journals of ornithologist Charles H. Rogers (1888-1977).
In honor of the “Coloring Feathers” theme, Katie and I also selected some blog bird posts we love, utilizing materials you can find at home. Note: If you don’t have feathers handy, just fringe some paper!
An easy-to-assemble bird puppet with fantastic flapping wings:
Our ever popular wrist parakeet (and an owl version for all you wizarding fans):
A hilarious hide-and-seek duck game in your own home:
A reading birdy on a perch (birdcage optional if you have pipe cleaners around!):
Or, how about a snack worthy of a swan?
All creatures great and small gather in this colorful jungle city, which doubles as a beautiful sun catcher! This was such a simple project – clear sheet, tissue paper, glue, and scissors – but it’s been one our patron’s favorite story time projects this year!
We read Animal City by Joan Negrescolor (Chronicle, 2018). Nina loves to visit Jungle City and read stories to her animal friends. While each animal has a favorite (the flamingos, for example, like Mythology), the story they like best? The very book you’re reading! This book is absolutely gorgeous, and we tried to capture the artist’s color and shape play with our project.
You’ll need:
The key to this sun catcher project is the clear plastic sheet. We used 16″ x 20″ archival mylar sheets (one of the perks of being a rare books library!). But you can use thinner clear cellophane wrap, which is sold in the gift wrap section of Michael’s Craft store. Another possibility? Parchment paper, found in the supermarket baking aisle alongside the aluminum foil. It’s opaque, but still lets plenty of light through.
To create your sun catcher, cut, arrange, and glue the tissue shapes to your clear sheet. We purchased pre-cut tissue circles and squares, but also had larger tissue sheets available to customize. We recommend using glue sticks, which allowed for better control and dried perfectly clear (even the purple ones!).
We also recommend markers, just in case kids wanted to add details, or draw expressions on their animals…
When your creation is complete, tape it to a window or door and admire the shapes and colors. It’s especially cool when the colors overlap!
James Herriot fans…today’s blog post title was for you! Animal city, indeed!