Salt Dough Fossils

My 10 year old has been helping me teach her little sisters about dinosaurs this year, since it's one of her favorite topics. She asked me to buy some extra salt and flour this week so she could teach the little girls how to make salt dough dinosaur fossils. My preschoolers had a blast playing with the dough and making dinosaur prints and my older daughter had fun teaching them all about fossils. It was the perfect way for big sister to review everything she's learned about fossils while doing a fun hands on activity with the younger girls.

How to Make Salt Dough:

Before you can make fossils, you need to make your salt dough. It's a very simple recipe- just flour, salt, and water. We used 2 cups of flour, 1 cup of salt, and a little over a cup of water.

Start by mixing the flour and salt in a large bowl. Then slowly add cool water until a thick dough forms. Knead it a few times with your hands, and that's it.

Salt Dough Fossils:

To make dinosaur fossils with your salt dough you will need plastic toy dinosaurs to make imprints with. You can also make imprints with other objects like shells, acorns, or other plastic toys too. You will also need round cookie cutters or round cups or jar lids.

Start by lightly flouring your work surface and your hands. You might want to put down a drop cloth or plastic placemats to work on, this makes it easier to clean up later. Roll the dough out about a 1/4 inch thick, then use the cookie cutters to cut out round pieces of dough to make your fossils on.

Gently make imprints on the round pieces of dough with the dinosaurs and other objects. You can make imprints with the dinosaurs feet to make footprints.

When your kids are done playing, you can dry their favorite fossils. Salt dough can just be set aside for several days to air dry. It's best best to flip them over each day while they dry so that both the top and bottom get enough air. Salt dough can also be dried in the oven. Just set them on a baking sheet and bake them in the oven at 250° F for about two hours.

Extend the Learning:

You can use this as an opportunity to teach your kids about how fossils form and about some of the different types of fossils. Preserved footprints are an example of trace fossils, while preserved imprints of a shell or a skeleton are examples of imprint fossils.

Here are some online resources for learning about fossils:

-Fossil Facts for Kids

-Paleontology for Kids from The Anerican Museum of Natural History

-Dig Into Paleontology video from SciShow Kids

If you enjoyed this post, check out:

-Learning About Geologic History: Fossils

-Nature Print Salt Dough Ornaments

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