Go Searching for Fossils in Your Sandbox!

Does your child love dinosaurs? Give your budding paleontologist the chance to flex his exploratory muscles by helping him create his very own fossils to hide in the sandbox or at the park. This project is perfect for those upcoming warm spring and summer months, when spending time outdoors is especially important (not to mention pleasurable!) in order to keep your child active when he's not in school. This is an easy project for even younger kids to do without much more than supervision.

What You Need:

• Modeling clay
• Petroleum jelly (such as Vaseline)
• Chicken bones
• Paintbrush

What to Do:

1. Help your child knead the clay until it's soft and pliable. Form the clay into several balls and flatten each one into a disc about 1-inch thick.
2. Brush a thin layer of petroleum jelly over the top of the clay disc (to keep the bone from sticking to it).
3. Take one of the chicken bones and firmly press it into the clay. Carefully remove it, leaving an impression in the clay.
4. Let the clay harden before putting it in the sandbox. Repeat with different bones to make more fossils. Be sure to give your little paleontologist a paintbrush and specimen bucket for his excavations!