{"id":430,"date":"2014-03-13T17:19:10","date_gmt":"2014-03-13T17:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.elainevickers.com\/?p=430"},"modified":"2020-07-19T20:45:37","modified_gmt":"2020-07-19T20:45:37","slug":"backyard-book-club-making-fossils","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elainevickers.com\/blog\/backyard-book-club-making-fossils\/","title":{"rendered":"Backyard Book Club: Making Fossils"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Our Backyard Book Club read&nbsp;<em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/www.elainevickers.com\/1\/post\/2014\/03\/ivy-bean-break-the-fossil-record-by-annie-barrows-backyard-book-club.html\" target=\"_blank\">Ivy + Bean Break the Fossil Record&nbsp;<\/a><\/em>by Annie Barrows. So what could we do but make fossils at our meeting? The kids loved this activity and were so excited to take their fossils home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.elainevickers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/439091594.jpeg\" alt=\"Fossil Making Supplies\" class=\"wp-image-431\" width=\"390\" height=\"260\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.elainevickers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/439091594.jpeg 387w, https:\/\/www.elainevickers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/439091594-300x200.jpeg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 390px) 100vw, 390px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>To make fossils of your own, you&#8217;ll need these materials:<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>aluminum foil<\/li><li>modeling clay<\/li><li>Plaster of Paris<\/li><li>whatever you want to fossilize&#8211;plants, shells, plastic bugs (but don&#8217;t worry, all you&#8217;ll do is push these into the clay and take them back out. They won&#8217;t really be fossilized!)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s how to make your own fossil in just a few minutes (plus drying time):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>1. Put a lump of modeling clay on a piece of aluminum foil and flatten it until it&#8217;s about 3\/4&#8243; thick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.elainevickers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/243401679.jpeg\" alt=\"The process of making fossils\" class=\"wp-image-432\" width=\"399\" height=\"265\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.elainevickers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/243401679.jpeg 390w, https:\/\/www.elainevickers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/243401679-300x199.jpeg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 399px) 100vw, 399px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>2. Press whatever you want to &#8220;fossilize&#8221; deep into the clay, then carefully remove it. We used plastic bugs and butterflies, sea shells, and clippings from juniper and spruce trees. (It looks best if you put the bugs belly-up in this step.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.elainevickers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/374272793.jpeg\" alt=\"Pouring Plaster into the fossil mold\" class=\"wp-image-433\" width=\"337\" height=\"507\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.elainevickers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/374272793.jpeg 395w, https:\/\/www.elainevickers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/374272793-199x300.jpeg 199w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 337px) 100vw, 337px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>3. Mix up a little Plaster of Paris by stirring powder and water together according to package instructions. Then pour your plaster over the top of your clay and use the back of a spoon to press it down into all the little indentations. (Warning: Your plaster may set even before the package instructions say it will, so it&#8217;s best to mix the plaster right before you&#8217;re going to use it. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>4. Play other fun games while you wait for the plaster to dry! Ours were ready in about an hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.elainevickers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/304598886.jpeg\" alt=\"Peeling the clay off the homemade fossil\" class=\"wp-image-434\" width=\"404\" height=\"269\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.elainevickers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/304598886.jpeg 396w, https:\/\/www.elainevickers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/304598886-300x200.jpeg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 404px) 100vw, 404px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>5. Turn your fossil over and carefully peel back the clay. (You can reuse the clay for other projects.) Don&#8217;t they look great?<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.elainevickers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/793909368.jpeg\" alt=\"the fossils\" class=\"wp-image-435\" width=\"404\" height=\"302\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.elainevickers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/793909368.jpeg 397w, https:\/\/www.elainevickers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/793909368-300x224.jpeg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 404px) 100vw, 404px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>More about fossils:<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Read&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/book\/show\/5142057-fossils-tell-of-long-ago\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Fossils Tell of Long Ago<\/em><\/a>&#8211;a great picture book about different kinds of fossils and how they&#8217;re created<\/li><li>Check out the activities on the&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.fossils-facts-and-finds.com\/fossil_activities.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Fossil Facts and Finds&nbsp;<\/a>website<\/li><li>Watch this&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Z4cjYND66J8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">fossil episode<\/a>&nbsp;of Bill Nye the Science Guy&nbsp;<\/li><li>To review, check out the fossil crosswords and word search puzzles&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.fossils-facts-and-finds.com\/fossil_activities.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Come back next week for another fun activity from this month&#8217;s Backyard Book Club!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our Backyard Book Club read&nbsp;Ivy + Bean Break the Fossil Record&nbsp;by Annie Barrows. So what could we do but make fossils at our meeting? The kids loved this activity and were so excited to take their fossils home. To make fossils of your own, you&#8217;ll need these materials: aluminum foil modeling clay Plaster of Paris [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,19,2],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Backyard Book Club: Making Fossils - Elaine Vickers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.elainevickers.com\/blog\/backyard-book-club-making-fossils\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Backyard Book Club: Making Fossils - Elaine Vickers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Our Backyard Book Club read&nbsp;Ivy + Bean Break the Fossil Record&nbsp;by Annie Barrows. 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