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This summer we had lots of fun doing summer camp at home with a neighbor family. The other mom and I took turns hosting all of the kids for a day of activity themed fun and we all had a blast! I planned camping themed activities for the first camp day at my house and decided dinosaurs would be perfect for the second.
One of the coolest things we did was dissolve dinosaur egg fossils. We started by reading the book Dinosaur Eggs by Susan H. Gray. The book explains how dinosaur egg fossils were formed and how scientists get to what is inside the eggs. We learned that scientists can use acid to dissolve the fossilized egg to uncover the baby dinosaur bones inside.
(If you click on the cover it will take you to an Amazon link, but the book is not for sale. Check your library for a copy, that’s were we found the one we used!)
The night before camp I made dinosaur egg fossils using a method I found at BellaOnline. I followed her general directions, tweaking it a little bit to make 6 dino eggs.
Here’s what I used:
2 cups of powdered lemonade mix
4 cups of baking soda
bottle of face astringent
spray bottle
miniature dinosaurs
Mix together 1 cup of lemonade mix and 2 cups of baking soda. Then lightly spray the mixture with the astringent. Don’t get it too wet or it will start to dissolve now, just wet it enough so that you can pack it together.
Then grab a handful and place it in the bottom of a small bowl and place a dino on top. Add more mixture on top and shape into an egg. This amount will make about 3 eggs. Once it’s done start over with the remaining ingredients.
During camp we read Dinosaur Eggs and then went into the kitchen to reenact the process. Everyone added a small cup of “acid” (warm water) to their egg and observed what happened.
The egg fossils slowly dissolved until the baby dinosaur was revealed!
This activity was a fantastic way for the kids to learn about fossils. I’ll share more of the activities we did next week so stay tuned for more dino fun!
For more dino fun be sure to check out:
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About Megan Sheakoski
Ooh my goodness. Oooh my goodness. This is amazing. Awesome. Brilliant. We are soooo doing this!!! We are total fossil nuts over here!!!! I love this!
It was very cool! Especially since they saw the scientists do the same thing in the book–they felt super cool. Afterward my 6 year old said that they should have worn my husband’s lab jackets while they did it and I agreed that would definitely make it more official!
That looks like so much fun! We love love love dinosaurs! I will have to check our library for the book. Thanks for sharing
I hope you find it because they really do go hand in hand! Although my 4 year old explained I should have out baby dinosaur bones in instead of the toy dino, but I had already used up all the dino skulls I had in the other fossils. The funny conversations you end up having when playing with dinosaurs!
So cool! My little guy with love this!
It was one of those that actually turned out cooler than what I had envisioned so I definitely recommend it! Thanks so much for stopping by!
Love this idea. My boys would love this:-) Found you on the Kid’s co-op. Will pin and FB share this great idea. Jaime@FSPDT
Thanks so much Jaime!!!