We picked back up our geography for kids with a cookie fossil dig in Colorado. I know this is also a science for kids activity, but we did it as part of learning about Colorado.
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First we read Dinosaur Mountain: Digging into the Jurassic Age*, before starting our study up of Colorado again I hadn’t known the state was known for a large dinosaur dig in the late 1800s, when the huge dinosaur craze was going on. There’s a series of canyons stretching from Utah to Colorado that have large number of fossils.
We’ve previously done a couple of dinosaur excavations (dinosaur dig at the park, dinosaur excavation kit, and pasta dinosaur dig), and I wanted to come up with a slightly different variation
Cookie fossil dig supplies
chocolate chip or M&M cookie (we chose M&M), toothpicks* (I like these because I won’t crush the box and have them all over the drawer the next day) or Bamboo Skewers* (which is what I discovered I actually had in the house, sigh)
Cookie fossil dig procedure
I stressed to the kids the importance of recording their findings as they dig up their fossils. I also stressed the importance of being slow with your work.
So they set to it, slowly breaking apart bits and pieces of the cookies, and finding the all important M&Ms. Then they recorded what they found with where it was in the cookie, how many there were, and any other details they found important.
As a final step they were to write what they thought they found. Paleontologists in the early days knew nothing about what they were finding, and were making it up as they went along, so my kids made up the answers too based on the theories they created.
And of course in the end we ate some of the leftover cookies, a tough job, but someone had to do it.
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Brilliant activity! I also didn’t know about Colorado as a dinosaur graveyard. I always thought of Utah as one, but since they are close, it kind of figures!
I knew about Montana, and Utah, but like you said it makes sense because they are so close.
What a great state activity! We did it when we did geology, but it is a great idea to do it with Colorado.
Thanks. I meant to do something like this with our geology stuff, but time just got away from me this year.
What a delicious fossil dig!
I know! It was so much fun to do, and clean up was easy, we just ate the mess.
Of course, we would have to distribute two cookies…
Of course….
You know I like anything that has to do with a cookie 🙂 I grew up (part way, anyway) in Colorado, so I knew about the dinosaurs. They also have some absolutely fabulous Indian cliff dwellings, and of course the Royal Gorge Bridge – just in case you missed anything – popping in out of order, I’m not sure what all you’ve already posted about – but this activity looks great!
This is the first thing we did, we got started on the activities and then the books were due back at the library, so I need to recheck them before we can finish.
What a fun and simple activity. Ticia, you are the queen of fun and simple activities!
Awwww…. thanks. You’re no slouch yourself on fun activities.