Test your skills as a poster puzzler by trying this conservation activity.

1. Select and print one of the posters shown below..
2. Fold it up and put it in your pocket. Then take it out and unfold it.
3. Now tear the poster into pieces about 2"-3" in size (the bigger the pieces, the easier the activity; the smaller the pieces the harder).
4. Throw away 2 pieces.
5. Using a blank piece of paper as a base, begin reassembling and smoothing the pieces of poster as if they were part of a puzzle. When you have most of the pieces in place, tack them down to the base paper with a glue stick.
6. When you have all the pieces glued into their proper places, note where your "holes" are. What part of the picture would have been there on the original? A single color, a face, a word? Draw or paint in what you think would have been there. Try to match your "in-painting" to the other pieces as best as you can.
7. Now, test your work against the original to see how you did.
8. If you're really into it, try using colored pencil to mask any rips, tears, or folds.

If you loved this activity, you just might be a conservator in the making! "Conservators" are specially trained people who clean, reassemble, and repair all sorts of art and artifacts for museums and private collectors all around the world.