When the Backyard Book Club read Ivy + Bean Break the Fossil Record, we decided to follow in Ivy and Bean’s footsteps and do a little digging of our own. Before the rest of the kids arrived, our trusty assistants buried these items in the sandbox (some of them protectively sealed in plastic bags):
- Ivy
- Beans
- plate and dish soap
- masking tape
- shovel
- wine glass
- puzzle
- spoons
- straws
- scorpion
- M&M’s
- world record (or similar) book
When the kids arrived, we divided into two teams. Each team had a shovel and team members took turns digging up an item. When the discovery slowed down a little, we opened up the dig site (a.k.a. sandbox) to all the kids until all the items were found. Then we sat down together in a shady spot and figured out what each item had to do with our book. The kids had lots of suggestions as to what they’d bury if it were up to them! It was a really fun way to review what happened in the story and a great follow-up to our fossil-making activity. After we were done, some of the kids wanted to keep digging, just to make sure we hadn’t missed anything. (Come to think of it, we never did find the M&M’s…)
