I know... I haven't been on here in a while. :/ I'm sorry! I do have a few good excuses, but I won't tell them to you just yet. :)
Today we had our annual VBS on Digging For Answers about how dinosaurs fit into the Biblical account of creation. Fascinating stuff! For our outside activity, we created "fossil eggs" for the kids to break open and chip away at with little screwdrivers and toothbrushes. They had a blast, and since we did it outside, there was no cleanup!
Dino Eggs:
1 1/4C dirt
1 1/4C flour
3/4C salt
1/2C sand
Mix all your ingredients, then slowly add water until the mixture is moldeable. Form a ball roughly twice the size of your dinosaur (or whatever plastic toy you want), flatten onto a piece of wax paper, then gently push the toy into the center and begin folding the 'clay' around it, adding more as needed. How many it will cover depends on the size of your toy. Place on a cookie sheet and put out in the sun to dry - this will take several days, and you will want to rotate them so they get hard all the way around. After a week of drying, ours were still moist in the middle, but the outside was hard enough to provide the kids with a challenge, but not be so rock hard it's frustrating.
Give the kids mini screwdrivers, bamboo skewers, toothbrushes, etc. to "excavate" their toy out with. For the really little kids, we just gave the eggs a good whack with a hammer and let them pull the pieces off. Hope you enjoy!
