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This month’s Poppins Book Nook theme is Dinosaurs. We decided to focus on dinosaur fossils. We have 2 books about dinosaur fossils that I love. And… we have been making dinosaur fossils!
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Digging Up Dinosaurs and Fossils Tell of Long Ago both by Aliki.
These books are so wonderful (as are all other books by this author!) They are fun, but also really teach a lot in the process. After reading these books together, we made a GIANT dinosaur fossil together out of homemade clay.
To make the clay:
2 c. flour
1 c. salt
1 c. cold water
1 Tbsp oil
Mix together. It can be baked @ 300 degrees for an hour, or air dry for a few days. I multiplied this recipe by 5 when I made it so I had a huge batch of it to make our dinosaur.
I found a dinosaur fossil image on Google images that I liked. We decided to make a T-Rex dinosaur. Then, I saved the image into a PDF file and printed it in poster format 800x multiplied (it was a small image). This prints it out on a whole bunch of pages that you then assemble together and tape.
We all worked together to build the fossils out of clay. My sister & her kids joined us for the project.
Once it was all finished, we let it dry out in the sun for 2 days. You can bake the clay, too.
Then I spread them out on the lawn for the kids to re-assemble the fossil. This was pretty tough, but lots of fun!
Want another fun dinosaur activity? Read Diggin’ Up Dinosaur Bones.
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Shecki Grtlyblesd says
May 27, 2013 at 6:33 amAwesome! We will be studying Dinos next year. I’ll be sure to pin this!
monstersed says
May 27, 2013 at 6:56 amOMGsh that is an awesome activity!
Erin D says
May 27, 2013 at 12:58 pmI LOVE this!!! Pinning now while I try to find some time for us to give it a try too. Thanks for sharing!
Cat says
May 27, 2013 at 1:04 pmThis looks like the kids had a lot of fun!
Deceptively Educational says
May 27, 2013 at 2:03 pmThis activity is amazing and I like the book recommendations too! My son is crazy about dinosaurs; he’d REALLY enjoy this! I’d love it if you’d share this activity in this week’s After School Linky party on my blog right now.
nodoubtlearning.com says
May 27, 2013 at 2:21 pmWe love books by Aliki! Looks like a challenging activity, but I’m sure the kids learned how hard scientists have to work!
Melanie says
May 27, 2013 at 5:56 pmWow!! That came out amazing!! I am pinning this idea 🙂
http://ourcraftsnthings.com/
Ticia says
May 28, 2013 at 10:21 pmI love the idea of building your own dinosaur, I may have to steal that.
Ashley says
May 28, 2013 at 11:26 pmThis looks amazingly fun! Definitely pinning!
Leann Warren says
June 6, 2013 at 1:51 amThis is just AWESOME! I pinned it it earlier this week on FB, and now I’m featuring it over at The Hands-On Homeschooler as a part of the Hearts at Home bloghop.
Alison says
May 13, 2016 at 8:40 amCan you post the image you used? I would love to do this with my kids!