Fun with Fossils

Last Thursday, I noticed Felix was playing in the mud area outside for a very long time. He looked so focused on the task he had given himself I just had to go over and find out what he was doing. He explained he was looking for fossils. He walked me through the whole process on how to put the different types of dirt together to create the perfect conditions to find a fossil. Elephant, dinosaur, goat, eagle, and blue whale fossils are just some of the items he was finding.  

The next morning Felix asked if I wanted to help him make some more fossils. I was more than happy to oblige. While we were in the process of collecting the kind of dirt that we needed some friends started asking questions and coming over to help. By the time lunch was ready, we had quite a collection of fossils, including some dinosaur eggs. 

On Wednesday, Felix and Isaak brought in some really incredible treasures from their home to show all of us. They had three real fossils from their home they wanted to show us: a fish fossil, a conch shell fossil, and an actual dinosaur bone fossil! Everyone was so excited about seeing what real fossils look like up close. Then we decided to make some of our own! We immediately got to work. 

After creating our fossils, we put them on some baking sheets and baked them in the oven all day. The fossils that came out of the oven were full of spectacular detail and as hard as rocks, just like real fossils!

Stay tuned to find out what we had in store for our newly formed fossils....

While participating in these activities my friend engaged in several Vermont Early Learning Standards (VELS) including, but not limited to: 
Domain 1 (Approaches to Learning), Elements 1 - 3 (Play and exploration, initiative, and problem solving)
Domain 2 (Social/Emotional Learning), Element 3 (Relationships)
Domain 3 (Growing/Moving/Being Healthy), Element 1 (Motor Development and Coordination)
Domain 4 (Language Development), Elements 1 - 5 (Listening, speaking, and knowledge of language)
Domain 9 (Science), Elements 1 and 4 (Physical Sciences and Engineering Design)