...because the simplest of words become stories for a lifetime...
We had loads of fun with this dinosaur excavation. My son was at first confused, as to why he should break the stone/ white thing. He was then thrilled to have found the dinosaur inside, which he of course cleaned right away. Afterwards, he discovered the charm of crumbling the 'soil' into tiny bits, using hands, hammer, and the brush. Soon rhe powder was everywhere, literally everywhere!
At this point we could add some water in the powder and work our way back to oobleck but somehow that wasnt as interesting as crumbling everything into tiny dust.
Just a word of warning, be careful with your corn starch, if it takes too long to dry it might end up smelling rather unpleasant of even turn nasty yellow colour, yuck.
1 Dinosaur inspired activities
Dinosaurs are such a popular topic for so many children. There is something alluring about these extinct beasts that simply seems to drag children in. Personally, I think its the colours and strange shapes, but most of all T-Rex and his roar! Either way, dinosaur activities are always in fashion, so here is a simple collection of my 10 favourite dinosaur-inspired activities for children.
1. Dinosaur excavation
Materials needed:
-
plastic box
-
brush and a hammer
-
toy dinosaurs/ dinosaur skeletons
-
water, spoon, bowl
-
corn starch or flour or plaster of Paris
Instructions:
-
Place your dino in a plastic container.
-
Mix your ingredient (cornstarch, flour or plaster) with water. Keep it as thick as possible (close to oobleck) so that it dries quicker but at the same time is liquid enough to envelop the dinosaur.
-
Pour it over the dinosaur, covering it completely and let dry ideally in the sun for 1-2 days for cornstarch and flour. Follow your instructions for the plaster of Paris if using that.
-
Once dry, take out and use hammer and brush to play little paleontologists!
The science behind:
After an animal dies, in this case, dinosaur, the soft parts of its body decompose leaving the hard parts, like the skeleton and teeth, behind. Those become buried by sediment which builds up on top and begins to compact and turn to rock. The bones then start to be dissolved by water seeping through the rock. Minerals in the water replace the bone, leaving a rock replica of the original bone which is called a fossil.
Suggestions:
-
You can try all three materials and compare how the digging process is different.
