Making Fossils

Grade Levels: 1 - 4

Objectives

Students will experiment.
Students will observe.

Materials

One cup salt
One cup flour
One tsp. alum (available at any pharmacy)
3/4 cup water
Bones, leaves, toy dinosaurs, shells

Procedures

Mix the dry ingredients together.
Slowly add the water until a dough is formed and the mixture sticks together.
Roll the dough into balls, then flatten into a pancake.
Press the leaves, shells, bones, toy dinosaurs, or other objects in the dough to make an impression.
Dry. (Paint if you desire.)
Ask the children which objects made the different impressions.

Extension Activities:

Make fossils with plaster of Paris. (Rub petroleum jelly on the objects before making an impression with them in the plaster of Paris.)

How about fossil cookies? Take "slice and bake" cookie dough and cut off a piece for each child. Let them make thumb prints or use other objects to make impressions in the dough. Cook according to directions.

Make mud dough from dirt, water, straw, and glue. Let children make a pancake around an object, then dry it in the sun for several days. Break it open to reveal a fossil.

Excerpt from Science Surprises! .

:: PRINTER FRIENDLY

December Events

Find educational resources for every day in December. Fill your December lessons with activities for Hanukkah (Dec. 21 -- Sundown), Winter Solstice (Dec. 21), Christmas (Dec. 25), Kwanzaa (Dec. 26), New Year's Eve (Dec. 31), Universal Human Rights Month (Dec.), World AIDS Month (Dec.).

Rulers & Number Lines

Take a look at our collection of printable rulers and protractors and number lines and place-value charts.

Letter-Writing Activities

Develop students' composition skills with these printables and activities. Students will learn about basic letter formats and practice writing formal, persuasive, and friendly letters.

Walden Forums

Wondering about online education at Walden? Get answers to your questions, meet faculty, and learn what it's like to be a Walden student. Click here to check out our free Walden Forums!

2009 Educators' Calendar

There's something worth celebrating every day! Find fun and educationally relevant holidays, events, and celebrations for each day of the year.

Printable Maps

Enrich your lessons with our collection of printable world maps depicting continents, countries, capitals, political boundaries, lines of longitude and latitude, climate zones, oceans, land forms, and more. Plus, browse our collection of Unites States maps.

Daily Printables

Add a TeacherVision widget to your blog, personalized homepage (such as iGoogle or Pageflakes), or social networking sites (such as Facebook). Our widgets feature a different fifth-grade language arts printable or fourth-grade math printable for each day of the year.

FREE Lesson Plan - 1st of 3 Free Items