Materials
Bones (soup bones, soft poultry bones, large fish bones), bleached and dried Liquid laundry bleach
Bucket
Sifters Sandbox
Slotted spoons Cardboard
Glue Paintbrushes
Sand shovels Safari hats, optional
Instructions
1. Without the children, prepare the bones by boiling them in water with salt. Clean them and place them in a bucket of bleach for two hours, then remove them and place them in the sun to dry for a couple of days.
2. Bury the bones in the sandbox. Children use shovels, brushes, sifters and spoons to dig up the bones.
3. Each child glues his finds onto cardboard for display.More to doMath: Younger children may prefer to dig up small plastic dinosaurs and categorize them by color, size and shape. They may count sets as well. * Extend this activity for older children to include math skills as follows: divide the sandbox into quadrants by attaching string in a crisscross fashion (using thumb tacks) over the sandbox. Assign numbers to each quadrant. Preparecardboard by writing the numeral for each square on the back of each piece. Assign one quadrant per child to dig up artifacts. Children may compare types and amounts of bones. They mayreassemble the squares in order.
