paleontologists at work
Thursday, March 4th, 2010
When we started discussing fossils last week, what they are, how they are found and who does the finding, the children loved the thought of being a paleontologist. So we thought, “OK, let’s give it a go!!”
After reading the story ‘Amanda’s Dinosaur’ by Wendy Orr we thought it would be fun for the children to create their own fossilized eggs.
We supplied balls of tacky clay …
along with a variety of mini dinos, shells, stones and other small articles of interest.
The children buried their selected item deep into the middle of the clay…
and molded it into an egg shapes.
To make them more rock-like, we popped the finished balls out on the window ledge in the sun to dry out.
The next day, armed with hammers, large nails and brushes, we explained to the children how carefully the fossils needed to be uncovered to prevent them being destroyed …
then they chipped …
ever so carefully …
and brushed away …
still so carefully until …
they discovered …
their fossils!!
Most children chose to chip all the clay away …
and clean up their fossil …
while a few preferred to leave a little of the clay behind …
like the fossils they’d seen pictures of in our science books!
Of course we expected some children would be a little enthusiastic, causing their fossils to be damaged or destroyed, however, to the great delight of all of us, our budding paleontologists did such a careful job that 100% of fossils were successfully uncovered with out any damage!
And of course the fun didn’t end with the discovery of the fossils …
there was still plenty of fun to be had with the left over clay …
pounding it into dust!
What excitement … and so much FUN!
