Fossils

The past month the kids and I did a unit on Fossils. I think the only thing missing out of our unit was a trip to the La Brea Tar Pits (who had a free homeschool day on the day we had everyone's lessons), or to the LA Natural History Museum to look at the new dinosaur wing. Maybe we will do that this month.

The idea for my unit came from the Science in a Nutshell Fossil Formation kit. I love these kits because they have everything you need to do the experiments. The only thing I change is the Activity Workbooks- they are probably more for a 4-5 grade level. I just ask the questions and have everyone answer.

You could do the same experiments at home by pushing shells and other objects into clay, and then pouring plaster into them. Then you can take the plaster cast you made, and push the clay in to make another imprint. You can also make reverse casts by pouring plaster into your plaster mold, and then splitting them apart (which, didn't work for us). Another experiment was to make footprints in clay (we used our hands and plastic dinosaur feet), and then cast them in plaster. The kids had lots of fun playing with the plaster and trying to get good imprints from the fossils.

I also matched the Let's Read and Find Out books to the kit. The books we read were Digging Up Dinosaurs, Fossils Tell of Long Ago, Dinosaur Bones, My Visit to the Dinosaurs, and Dinosaur Tracks. They matched up perfectly with what they learned in the kit. The books are a little young for Genius, but I think he likes to take a little break every once in awhile.

Our next month- Breaking Earth's Hold....space, the moon, and the planets. And probably a trip to Genius's favorite sport, the Griffith Observatory.