- Take the children to see a museum with prehistoric creatures and fossils, which is a practical introduction to the topic. If you don't have sufficient time, present a slide-show with dinosaurs and fossils. Ask them to identify fish, dinosaur bones and other items that were fossilized. Tell children that fossils can tell scientists about ancient times and prehistoric creatures such as dinosaurs.
- Take 10 minutes to introduce vocabulary such as fossil, embedded, fossil brush, bones and skeleton. Words such as paleontology and paleontologist may be difficult to grasp for a preschool child, but you can present them. Exemplify with pictures or show children exhibits in the museum. Follow up with simple yes/no questions to make sure the children understand the words. Hold up a picture and ask what type of fossil they see.
- Demonstrate how fossils formed by putting plaster of paris at the bottom of a box or a container and place a shell or a skeleton of a fish in it. Explain how the shell or the skeleton fills up with sediments over time. Pour some water and sift plaster over the shell or skeleton to show children how the sediments gather and cover the shell. Allow the plaster to cure, which takes between 20 and 30 minutes, depending on the size of the container and explain that the process of fossilization takes much longer in nature.
- While waiting for the plaster to cure, show children how scientists dig after fossils and how they remove the dirt and other debris using paintbrushes to preserve the shape of fossils. Instead of fossils use chocolate chip cookies. Tell children that a chocolate chip cookie and a fossil are similar. Hide the cookies in four to six buckets of sand and have groups of two or three children dig after fossils. Tell them that they have to find at least four fossils and they will have to carefully remove the chips with toothpicks without damaging them. Supervise children and don't allow them to eat the cookies.
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