Sunday, March 22, 2015

Fossil Fun!

Today we explored some fun with fossils and touched on catastrophism again!  There were three fun projects, some weather related jokes and a dual of the zebra's to decide who would make it on the Big Boat!  To end the day the kids created their own banana boat arks.  Join us as we explore the fun of fossils!


Dress Up - The Ark!

Today the kids all dressed up as animals, ready to board the Ark.  We had a little spat to determine which two zebras would make it on the boat!  

Making Thunder!

To start out we discussed thunder storms, and referenced catastrophism from last week.  We then did a little demonstration on how thunder works.  The kids were each given a paper bag, and then told to blow it up and twist the top to keep the air in.  Together we all quickly smashed the paper bag and heard the loud BOOM!  We talked about the travel of sound waves to our ears, much like thunder we hear. 

Making Lightning!

We moved on to calculating the distance of lightening.  We made it fun by having one Mom call out "Flash" and then the kids would count; one, one thousand, two, one thousand etc. and then another Mom would walk around the room being the thunder and waiting to make the big BOOM to surprise the kids.  Whatever number the BOOM came on, the kids would then add 5 to the number they were at when they heard the BOOM.  That was the approximate distance in miles, that the lightening was away from them.  You can try this over the summer when you are watching a thunderstorm, and calculate how far away the lightning is!  

Weather Jokes

For a little fun we then went around the room having the kids read the weather jokes I had printed out from the internet.  They were very puny and fun.  :)

Kid-a-Sauris Prints!

I moved on to discussing fossils once the big storm was over and the Flood at receded.  We talked about where they are found, and what types there are.  Then I had the kids decide what their dinosaur name would be.  The could just add a sauris or tri and tops to their names.  My daughter chose to be a Tri-Sarah-Tops.  They each got a thicker Chinet paper plate, and they wrote their name and date on it.  Then we made a dinosaur mould recipe to create our fossils.  

Dinosaur Mould Recipe:
  • 1/2 Cup of salt
  • 1 Cup of flour
  • 1 Cup of used coffee ground
  • 1/2 Cup of coffee
Mix all the ingredients together until it's moist and like a thick mud.  Next spread it out in the paper plate about 1/4" thick.  Make sure the surface is smoothed -we had little rolling pins.  Next have the kids place their hand(s) in the mud and press down hard to create an imprint.  Remove their hands and then let the mud dry for a few days, until hard.  

Imprinting Fossils

I had the kids go outside and search in the yard for some items they wanted to imprint into their model magic.  They came back with sticks, leaves, grasses, rocks etc.  Then I gave them some shells and told them they could use anything else they found around them.  
They were given the Crayola Model Magic to roll out and flatten about 1/4" thick.  Next they were to imprint as many items as they could fit into their modeling clay.  Once they were done, they put the clay onto their construction paper and wrote their name.  Finally, we had them pass them around and see if they could guess what each of the imprints were made from.

Fossils in the Earth's Crust 

Our last activity was to have the kids understand the various layers of rock and sediment that compacts and preserves fossils for us.  We took some sensory items and layered them with a rubber dinosaur for them to bury in the shale layer of their creation.  To layer we used; sugar or salt, coffee grounds, aquarium rocks and crushed popcorn to top it off!  
To end our day of fun, we played some review game stations and the kids had their Noah's Ark themed snack!  They were given banana "boats" with peanut butter, and then some animal shaped cookies to load into their Ark.  Creative, yummy fun!
We had a Wonderful Wednesday!
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2 comments:

  1. Fossils are always so much fun! I can't believe that the CC year is over. Our last day is tomorrow. Are you done yet?

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    1. Hi Amy - We had our last Community day today! It's gone by so fast! Thanks for stopping by! Blessings - Colleen

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