Fossils

Today we had a great time hanging out with dinosaurs at the library. We learned a lot about how big they were, different ways we know about them, and how to make fossils.

One way we looked at fossils were some foot print fossils that I made for the kids. I took sand and pressed it firmly in the container. Then I pressed the feet of a toy dinosaur in. I added plaster of Paris and let it harden overnight. Then  I removed it, adjusted it so that I could cover it completely with sand in the container. The kids un-earthed their fossil foot prints and using tools were able to identify them.

If you want to make a less messy fossil, check out this explanation here.

Make your own Fossils

Using modeling clay or Model Magic and objects like ferns, feathers, bones, or shells, you can create a fossil.

We just did this at the library and made all kinds of impressions from shells to toy dino prints to car tracks.

Flatten a piece of clay with your hand and press an object into it. You can just stop here and let the clay or Model Magic to dry and then paint it. This is how foot prints are fossilized.

If you are ready for a more realistic fossil, you can use plaster or clay. Carefully roll out another piece of clay about the same size. Cover the object with the second piece of clay and be sure it molds to the object. Gently pull the clay apart and you will have two impressions of your fossil! Once dry, you can paint the clay to look like rock.

Dinos in the library

I had a great time today learning about dinosaurs. While I am not sure everyone had fun the whole time, I am sure everyone had some fun. Must have been the wrong phase of the moon, but we had a lot of unhappiness among the participants today.

We learned that dinosaurs are studied by scientists called paleontologists. Some dinosaurs walked on all four feet and the were plant eaters or herbivores. Some dinosaurs walked on two feet and they could have been herbivores or carnivores - meat eaters.

Dinosaurs weren't as big as we thought. Some dinosaurs were smaller than people. We measured out a string to be as a long as an apatasaurus or 80 feet long. T. Rex was smaller! T. Rex was only about 40 feet long.

Paleontologists use fossils to learn about dinosaurs. We pretended to be paleontologist by excavating fossils from sand.

We made a graph of our favorite dinosaur and T. Rex had the most votes.

Mrs. V, the Library Director is going to leave our string up for tonight's Library Trustee meeting.

Rrroooaaarrr!