Fossil Workshop

Posted by lapazfarm on October 6th, 2007 filed in history, science, Curriculum or Lack Thereof..., Superboy Work Samples

Superboy and I have been enjoying using Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything as our science and history text this year. We are currently reading the parts about scientists trying to figure out the age of the earth, geologic time, rock strata, and fossil hunting. Fascinating stuff, but it took me the longest time to come up with a hands-on way of interacting with this particular material. I thought of making a wall timeline and having the kids make pictures of different things to put up on it, but that just didn’t seem to have enough pizazz to elicit much interest from the kids.

So I thought, what really is the main attraction to this area of science? Why does every kid go through a stage of wanting to be a paleontologist? Well, of course there are many reasons, but the short answer is… the fossils.

Fossils are just cool, there’s no denying. What kid does not dream of taking a shovel and pick, heading out into the desert to unearth something ancient and mysterious? Heck, I still think it would be awesome!

Unfortunately we don’t live in an area that has fossils to be readily found, or that would be my first choice of activities. And travel is not really an option right now, or we would head west.

So, I had the idea that we would do the next best thing and make our own fossils! The kids leapt at the opportunity!

First we got out a bunch of books and perused the pages to become familiar with different types of fossils. Then Superboy made a list of the different fossils they would like to make and the supplies they would need. Then it was time to begin! Bring on the Sculpey!

I really love how they worked together on this project, with JBug asking questions and Superboy sharing what he had read. They each used the pictures in the books to create their fossils and worked very hard, taking care to make them look accurate, and adding much detail.

Once they were satisfied with the clay models, we put them in the oven to bake:

Then came the amazing part, painting them to make them look like the real thing. I think they ended up with some pretty great results! Here is the finished collection:

Here are some close ups:

Superboy’s “ammonite” (it looks so real to me!).

His “Crinoid” ( this took a long time to make!).

JBug’s “trilobite” (not bad for a 6yo!).

Superboy collected some leaves from a ginkgo tree at the park to make this one.

And JBug did the fern.

It was fun experimenting with different materials to see what kind of impression they made in the clay. We finally settled on some seashells to make the majority of this “fossil fish“, which was a combined effort of Superboy and me. I couldn’t help myself as the kids were having so much fun I had to get in on it, too!

And in the collection picture you can there there is also a “raptor claw,” a “mollusk” and a representative of the Ediacaran fauna, all of which turned out wonderfully well.

Oh, what fun!!!!And relatively simple, too.

The next step is for Superboy to make cards for them all describing each fossil, where it would have lived and when, and interesting info about them. And then we will have our own little fossil museum to enjoy!

26 Responses to “Fossil Workshop”

Roxie Says:
October 6th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
Well I love this idea ! my boys will absolutely love trying this .
did you use oven bake clay or real clay ?
I’m also interested in the homeschool blog site rather then blogspot . is it free too ?
I am going to look more closely at your other entries now .
a rainy day activity instaed of vacuming
Thanks so much for the inspiration
Much Love , Roxie
joann10 Says:
October 6th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
These are just great. I was also wondering about what type of clay you used. We definitely will be trying this.:)
Margaret in Minnesota Says:
October 6th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
Wow. These are very cool.

Now for the extremely visual among us, what are the dimensions of these fossils? The ammonite, for example. Is it about as big as as, say, a quarter?

Also, may I ask what you used to paint the sculpey? Acrylic?

(A regular glutton for info, aren’t I?)
Jennifer E Says:
October 6th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
I love this idea! We’ll definitely have to try this out, too. thnaks for sharing! Cool!
lapazfarm Says:
October 6th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
Wow. That was fast! I don’t think I’ve ever gotten 4 comments so quickly!LOL!
The clay they used is Sculpey (terra cotta colored). It is oven baked clay (250 degrees, I think. I’ll ask Superboy).
The fossils range in size from approx 2 inches (the trilobite) to about 8 inches for the fish and crinoid. The ammonite is about 3.5 inches across and the raptor claw is about 5 inches.
They painted them with liquid acrylic, craft store cheapo type paint.
lapazfarm Says:
October 6th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
Superboy says they bake at 275 degrees.
Angel Says:
October 6th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
Wow, those are amazing! Thanks for the instructions as well
Jennifer Says:
October 6th, 2007 at 4:35 pm
Those are amazing. I love the Ginkgo and the fern. Works of art.
Lisa Tobin Says:
October 6th, 2007 at 6:33 pm
Very cool! You and the kids might want to check out the art by a local homeschooling mom at www.janetpanoch.com. I just visited the site to make sure I had the right URL and only found 3 trilobite paintings — I thought she used to have more there, but I guess she decided to show some of her other work (or maybe I’m mistaken). If you were interested, you could probably email her to see if she has pictures of any others to share.
Andrea Says:
October 6th, 2007 at 8:18 pm
Awesome! You have such a creative family! These look like the real thing! Can you tell I am impressed?
Suzanne Temple Says:
October 6th, 2007 at 9:11 pm
Very, very cool. Great idea!
tribeofautodidacts Says:
October 6th, 2007 at 9:16 pm
Spectacular!
ruthie Says:
October 6th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
wow what a great post! I will have to use this idea as well.. I am so glad you are so willing to share! amazing ideas!

I was going to ask…. have you thought of the kids making some specifically for you to go out and hide in the yard? .. you could make an dig site and hide some for them to find and have them use stakes and string grid to make map from just like real scientists do! .. OR you could secretly make a few to hide and have them find them(dig up) and then they will have to research what they are .. wow.. you could do this with all sorts of Archeaological things! make your own miniature artifacts or fossils.. what a great idea you had!!!

This just looks like so much fun.. and the pics of the fossils are amazing!

thanks for sharing!
laraszoo Says:
October 6th, 2007 at 10:41 pm
Wow, those are really amazing! What a great idea.
Valerie Says:
October 7th, 2007 at 8:16 am
Those are incredible! Lovely work, especially the crinoid! Great job, Superboy.

BTW, have you thought about looking in the creekbed for some crinoids? We have them all over the place here…they are among the easiest fossils to be found. We’ve never found a great one that’s intact, but the “stacked pennies” pieces (stems?) are easily found. We also have good success with Brachiopods and Bryozoans. The little kids get a kick out of the Bryozoans because the kind we find tend to look bone-like.
lapazfarm Says:
October 7th, 2007 at 8:31 am
Hi Ruthie. I had actually done a similar activity with my older kids when they were little. It was a lot of fun. I may try it again with JBug, but Superboy is a bit old for it I think. He may enjoy setting it up for his sister, though.
Hi Valerie
No, I wish our creekbeds contained such things. Believe me, as much time as we’ve spent in our creek we’d have spotted then by now!LOL!
We did find a few nice fossils in Alaska, though. I found a leaf fossil in Hope (on the Kenai penninsula) and on Kodiak we got some various fossil shells and we saw a lot of crinoid discs, but couldn’t remove them from the parent material-too hard.
Gwyn Says:
October 7th, 2007 at 8:49 pm
Hi - I have just found your blog and think it is just wonderful and inspiring. As soon as my kids are old enough I am going to follow your lead with the fossil prints!
Rhonda Says:
October 7th, 2007 at 9:21 pm
Just three little words….”Those are wonderful!”
MaryM Says:
October 7th, 2007 at 9:38 pm
They are beautiful - incredibly realistic. And if you make it west, I have some fossils sites for you!
Theresa ♥ Says:
October 7th, 2007 at 11:25 pm
Wow, these are so neat! He did an amazing job.
Karen Edmisten Says:
October 8th, 2007 at 7:04 am
You’re amazing, as always! What great ideas!
martha Says:
October 8th, 2007 at 9:32 am
wow those are wonderful! and I have a ton of sculptey just laying in a box inthe garage…
you have some wonderful art pieces going there!
do you frame/display all of it?
Jennifer Says:
October 8th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Very cool, Theresa! I think the fossils would look great shadowboxed on black velvet, perfect art for a family of naturalists.
Sherri Says:
October 10th, 2007 at 7:14 am
Those are amazing..just amazing!
Alice Gunther Says:
October 11th, 2007 at 12:09 am
This is one of the best science projects I have ever seen–anywhere! Just wonderful!
sarah in va Says:
October 16th, 2007 at 6:13 am
This is really great!! Lissa from the Bonny Glen told me I had to check this out and she was right. I am going to mark this to come back to for, perhaps, a summer project. Wonderful!!