Friday, March 11, 2011

Homemade Fossils


Ready for some dinorific fun?

Let's make sure we have everything we need:

Books to read?

Check!

Sample fossils to explore?

Check!

A dinosaur snack?

Check!


Pages to color if there's extra time?

Check!


Rock dough?

Check!


Shells and model dinosaurs to use for impressions?

Check!


Who knew learning about fossils could be so much fun!


Fossil Dough Recipe

1 cup used coffee grounds (they don't have to be dry)
1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup cold coffee

Stir the together the coffee grounds, flour, and salt until they are well mixed. Then pour in the coffee a little at a time and mix until you have a soft dough. (You may not use all the coffee.) Work the dough on wax paper, freezer paper, etc. and then allow to dry for a day or two. We used sea shells, leaves, and model dinosaurs to create examples of impression fossils.

I actually made a double batch of the dough; one following the recipe above and a second batch where I used instant coffee instead of used coffee grounds. It yielded a much darker brown and smoother dough. When I kneaded the two together I got some very interesting patterns ; to me it looked more rock-like than just the plain dough. Not that the kids really cared, they just had a lot of fun playing around with science. I did too...


7 comments:

Erin said...

I LOVE those books. This is a great idea! I will be adding this post to my favorites. :)

Sally Hannon said...

I used that recipe in my kindergarten class too. I made dinosaur eggs though. The kids had to carefully crack open to egg to find a "baby dino".

Suzanne said...

How fun! I passed on the recipe to my daughter for my 3 year old grandson to try...thanks!

Denice (inkstitch) said...

This is totally cool, Liz!

susan said...

yu are suck a kool mom? was this school project or just learning for the fun of it? either way i am sure all had a good time.
i typed out about 30 songs for mark's songbook that we take to gigs. we are going to playout on the 26th. havent done so for awhile so it should be really alot of fun!
did some fabric painting, and not what i was looking for. will try again on tuesday.

Manoute said...

This is so cool! My nephew loves dinosaurs, I'll do that with him when he'll come in 2 weeks. Thanks for sharing :o)

Diane said...

What fun!! I'm giving the recipe to my mom who works in a small library and often gets to dress up in costumes and read books and/or help make crafts with the children because I know she and the kids would love it.
Happy Tuesday!!