Materials
Assorted colored beads
Bowl or other container
Thread box with multiple compartments
Instructions
1. Before the children arrive, bury chicken bones in the sand.
2. Read a book about dinosaurs to the children.
3. Explain to the children that fossils are bones that have turned into rock. Tell the children that the reason we know what dinosaurs looked like is because people called archeologists found fossilized bones and pieced them together to make dinosaur skeletons.
4. Explain to the children that they are going to be like archeologists and dig in the sand to find bones.
5. Encourage the children to dig for the bones.
6. After the children find the bones, help them wash the bones in a dishpan of water and dry them using towels.
7. Encourage the children to compare and contrast their bones with the bones found by other children. They can experiment to see if they can fit any together.
8. When the activity is done, ask the children what kind of an animal they think the bones came from.More to do:Art: Ask the children to draw and color pictures of the bones and the animals that the bones come from. The children may tape their bones to the drawings, if desired.Language: Encourage the children to dictate stories about their experience or about what kind of animal the bones came from.Literacy: Put the drawings and stories on a bulletin board or bind them together to make a book. Encourage the children to take turns bringing the book home to read with their parents.
