Week 6 Exploration Activity

Weekly Exploration Activity

Recreating Fossils Exploration Activity

What are fossils? Where do they come from?

According to Britannica Kids,

"Fossils are the remains or traces of plants and animals that lived long ago. Fossils give scientists clues about the past. For this reason, fossils are important to paleontology, or the study of prehistoric life.

Most fossils are found in earth that once lay underwater. They usually formed from the hard parts—such as shells or bones—of living things. After a living thing died, it sank to the bottom of the sea. Layers of earth and the remains of other living things built up on top of it. Over time, these layers turned into rock. Eventually, part or all of the living thing’s hard parts also turned into rock. The fossil is the shape of these hard parts in the rock.

Other fossils are imprints on soft material that later hardened into rock. For example, scientists have found dinosaur footprints in rock that formed from mud.

Another kind of fossil can form after a small insect or a piece of a plant gets trapped in resin. (Resin is a sticky substance made by pine and fir trees.) When the resin hardens into a rock-like material called amber, the object inside is preserved."

After you read the story the dog that dug for dinosaurs, you will create or discover your own fossils by doing one of the activities below. If you want to do one of the toy activities, but don't have dinosaurs, just use other smaller toys of animals, or whatever you have. Lots of animals besides dinosaurs make fossils.

If you don't have everything you need, improvise with what you have. These are just ideas. Don't feel the need to go out and buy new things. If you have another idea, do it. Just make a recreation of a dinosaur fossil or the whole animal out of fossils, out of something. Be creative!

After doing your activity, write an informational text about what a fossil is. Write at least 5 sentences, with a topic sentence, details, and a closing sentence.