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.
