Fossil Experiments For Elementary Students

Fossil Experiments For Elementary Students – So how do we know dinosaurs were on this planet? I remember my preschooler asking this question. The answer, of course, is to dig it! This is how our love of working with fossils began. From simple creations to understanding different types of fossils, you can have fun with them. So, we start with our favorite fossil activities for kids of all ages.

Let’s start simple and get creative with simple exercises that even the smallest members of your family can do.

Fossil Experiments For Elementary Students

The easiest way to make a fossil is from dough. Whether you use salt dough like ours to make your own salt dough fossils, or beautiful cookie dough to create the same effect, check out their recipe here.

Awesome Dinosaur Activities For Kids

In addition to fossils that look like living things, trace fossils are also found, which are things that look like footprints in rock. Your preschoolers and older kids can have fun making fossil tracks with our safe “rock slime” recipe.

Preschoolers will love playing paleontologist with this simple fossil dig with sparkling fossilized eggs where they can find hidden dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures.

Younger preschoolers may enjoy being a fossil hunter with the quick and easy installation of our Sensory Fossil Hunting Container and can quickly and easily dig up dinosaur skeletons with the help of brushes.

Why not combine learning about fossils with reading – here’s our pick of the best dinosaur books for toddlers and preschoolers.

Dinosaur Crafts And Activities For Kids

While your older kids enjoy activities that the younger ones enjoy (salt dough fossils are great for making mold fossils), why not use clay to make fossil footprints instead of safe soil. There are 2 other fossil shapes that are better to create with older children.

First, they’re cast fossils – they’re fun to make, and although as you can see in the image above we made ours with shells, you can easily make them with dinosaur skeletons, even bones that you can Find out on a walk in nature. A more authentic creation than fossils. For complete instructions, see How to Make Casting Fossils with Kids here.

If you’re looking for books for older children, check out our fantastic selection of dinosaur story books for school children.

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Free Printables Dinosaur Worksheets

In addition to the 2 links above in the purple boxes that take you to our awesome collection of the best dinosaur books, we’ve selected books specifically about fossils that you and your kids will love. Check them out below.

One of our favorite fossil books featured here on a rainy day. Twice the Mother of Fossilized Eggs and Clay Fossils Excavating Dinosaurs by Aliki is a true story about the work of a paleontologist who tells how some of the fossils that form are dug up.

Designed for younger children. Curious About Fossils provides an excellent introduction to fossils, including information on their Victorian discovery, and covers not only dinosaur fossils, but plant fossils, sea creatures and even common fossils such as sharks’ teeth.

The DK Eyewitness Fossil Documentary Book contains more information about fossils than you can imagine, from the types of fossils to how they form, examples and details about fossils, including an interesting section on future fossils. We love eyewitness books because they have great pictures that can be used with younger children, but the information is great for high school level.

Sedimentary Rocks & Fossil Experiment

Create a geological timeline to scale so your kids can see how short fossil animals really were on the planet. The model above is suitable for older children, for younger children you can create our printable, cut and learn prehistoric time dial.

Look deep into rocks and create edible models that show the formation of sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks. The recipe for edible sedimentary rocks, the recipe for edible metamorphic rocks and the recipe for edible igneous rocks.

Cerise is a marine biologist, environmental educator, teacher, mother and homemaker from the UK. She loves to be creative, whether it’s simple and easy crafts and ideas, activities to make learning fun, or delicious recipes you and your kids can make together. You’ll find them all here at Rainy Day Mum. This activity inspired our Lil’ Smore journal that I shared in yesterday’s post. The magazine had an article on how to make a dinosaur fossil and my kids immediately wanted to try it! This was a fun activity for all of us and we made our own variations to come up with the recipe I’m sharing in this post.

2. Add 3/4 cup of water, stir the dough with a spoon until the ingredients are well combined.

Dinosaur Science Experiments

3. Put the dough on the table or table and knead it by hand so that it does not have lumps and is uniform. If it is dry and crumbly, add more water and if it is too wet and sticky, add more flour.

4. Roll the dough into balls about the size of a baseball, then roll out into a circle (try for a uniform thickness, about 1/4 inch or less).

5. Press the dinosaur toy into the dough. Whatever your kids want to do, you can push the side of the body or the legs or just one part of the body (such as the tail, head and neck)!

6. If you want your salt dough to dry quickly, place it in a 350°F oven and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until the dough is dry. Otherwise, you can leave it in the summer sun for a day or two to dry.

Enjoy Teaching Fossil Layers And Evidence For Kids

Our original recipe from Lil’ Smore magazine uses 5 cups of flour and makes enough for 5 large discs. It was too much for us, so I shortened the order for this post. If you want to make more, you can double the recipe.

Have you ever made your own fossils? This was our first time making salt dough and now I can’t wait to use it for other projects in the future!

Some of the links below are affiliate links, which means that if you click on a product link, I may receive compensation at no additional cost to you. I only link to products and pages that I personally use and highly recommend. As an Amazon affiliate, I earn money on qualifying purchases. Thank you for your support Are you planning for your geology classroom? Or maybe you’re planning a dinosaur-themed preschool party? Both are great opportunities to try our DIY fossil project with your kids. Making your own fossils is a lot of fun and actually not as “hard” or “messy” as you might think! This craft really gets the word out about how fossils form and makes a lasting impression on the kids!!

Fossil Dig Dinosaur Sensory Bag ⋆ Raising Dragons

Using the foil, you want to crumple and create a small round dish (as shown in the upper right corner). You will need a foil container for each fossil you want to make.

Next, you shape the clay to fit inside the foil container, as shown in the center of the photo. Your foil dish should rise higher than your clay dish.

Next, you will want to impress your clay. This can be done with the help of various plastic children’s toys. Try insects, dinosaurs, etc. and really press into the clay to bring out all the little details.

Using toys that have texture or pattern will create a more detailed fossil. Just make sure all the small pieces are firmly pressed into the clay.

Fun And Educational Fossils Activities For Kids

In a separate container, you’ll want to mix plaster of paris according to the specific product’s instructions. Obviously, this job is for mom, dad or teacher. Always supervise your students closely when using such materials.

Once the plaster is mixed, you can use a small spoon to gently fill the top of your clay molds. Adding a small amount of plaster with each cup will ensure that the plaster penetrates the small parts of your mold.

You can use the back of a spoon to smooth the top and fill in areas that may need more coverage.

Once your molds are filled with plaster, it’s time to wait for them to harden. This can take about an hour, so put them in a safe place and come back to them after about 60 minutes.

Free Dinosaur Fossil Activity

After making sure it is set, carefully peel off the foil to reveal it

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